Happy Fathers Day!

Since Father Day is coming up I wanted to dedicate a this blog to my father Berislav Dimitrijevic.  My dad has been my number one supporter in everything I dedicated my time to; from being the number one tennis player in my age group to driving to Romania to deliver food in a war ridden country.  He was the motivator of the group and had a personality that would light up a room. 

He was a very well-known doctor and professor in Serbian who would be on TV almost every week discussing nutrition and exercise.  He would be considered the Dr. Oz of today for Serbia during that time.  He was often found traveling to many different countries to share his medical findings and speak to conferences. 

I remember as a child always asking for presents upon his return.  One particular time I asked him for a frog.  I am not sure why I asked him for something like that but I know that he made it happen.  On that trip he called my mother several times in panic saying he didn’t know where to get a frog in German and had no idea what he was going to do.  My mother response was “you told that child you were going to get her a frog and that is what you need to do.”  Little to my disappointment he returned from that trip with a toy frog. I guess I forgot the small detail that I wanted a live one.

When my brother moved to the United States he was able to visit and see how the American lived.  He was entertained with the fact that you could get refills of soda and that the Americans have a concept of the all you can eat buffet.  I believe that both my brother and father were eventually thrown out of a couple of those restaurants for eating way too much. 

My father was a master of speaking and had a magnetic personality that you would instantly become friends with.  Sadly he passed away in 1997, but I will always have some great memories of him taking coins out of peoples ears or just cheering me on at my tennis matches.  To this day, I have a feeling he is still with me, watching and cheering louder then before.  I know he would be extremely proud of my accomplishments here in the US and even prouder that I am following my dream.