My Biggest Fan

My biggest fan avoiding the paparazzi!

Lots of people have fans.  Writers, professional athletes, actors, but for most of us our biggest fans tend to be family members.  I hope that my kids think that I'm their biggest fan.  They tell me I'm definitely their loudest fan so, I guess that's something.  For most people their biggest fan is their parents.  I'd like to say that's true of me too, but I'd be lying.  My mom isn't really the cheerleader type and she strongly believes in her theory that I can survive almost anything independently.  She's probably right, but I enjoy having a fan club in my life.  I have students who are a big fan and athletes who are fans of my coaching.  I hear I can be very entertaining and there is photographic/video proof of such antics.

My kids are my fans, when I'm not making them clean their rooms, pick up, get along with each other or just be decent human beings who don't bring dishonor to their family or themselves. So, I'd say they were my fans about ten percent of the time.  Please don't ask them how proud they are of me after a game when they are hungry, after one of many rants on the importance of education, first thing in the morning when I wake them up for school, or when they have to get up to watch mom run a race!  Probably not a good idea to ask Josie, Zeke or Colin if they're my fans when I'm having a migraine and trying to carry on.  The three of them have never had a headache so, they don't comprehend the greatness needed to complete such a task.  You could ask Stephen, but since he goes to school with me and has had to carry me inside from the car a couple times, he'd probably tell you'd he'd be a bigger fan if I worked less and lost about ten pounds.  (Stephen is now taking weight training and since he's building more muscles, I think I'll be able to carry some extra weight when he has to carry me in the house and thus build my family fan base numbers). Elijah comprehends the difficulty of living with migraine, but he's usually too busy trying to muster up his own greatness to carry on with migraines and epilepsy. 
  
So, whose my biggest fan? Well, that's a pretty easy question to answer.  It's my husband Brian.  I'd put a picture of his face up so you could congratulate him for surviving our crazy life together, but he hates having his picture taken!  It really doesn't matter what I do, he's been my biggest fan since high school.  When I cheered in high school he'd watch and tell me I was one of the best one's out there. (I've seen the pictures and know that he has exaggerated any cheer leading ability I had). When I decided to go to school 1200 miles away from home, he put me on the plane and told me I'd do a great job! When I started coaching he's spend endless hours listening to me about my teams and then come to watch to support me and tell me how far they had come.  He'd even participate if it meant I could have a better outcome (he still does and that's why the girls call him Man Gagnon). When I finished my Master's, he was proud of me and told everyone he knew that I had a Master's degree (most of my teaching friends have Master's degrees, but he didn't care and told them all at least a 100 times).  When I got my PhD, he ran around at graduation showing all the other new Doc's my dissertation, like they didn't just write one themselves! (It was his dissertation too as he helped with typing all 200 pages of it).  He's never missed a race I've run and has even been known to come and find me on the course and run with me to the finish! Even more amazing is that he's not a runner and will do this on long training runs too!  He calls in prescriptions, picks me up a work, takes nights off when migraine knocks me out and tells me I'm smart and beautiful even when I can't string two coherent words together and I have bags down to my knees from exhaustion.  He tells me I can when I feel like I can't.  He tells me I'm great when I think I can do better.  He tells me he's proud of my accomplishments when I don't think they stack up! So to my biggest fan, I appreciate your undying devotion, your support and your encouragement through life's journey. Oh, and I'm kinda a pretty big fan of yours too!