EDITOR'S NOTE: Congratulations to Jordan Haglin, 5th grader at Staples Elementary School. His "Father of the Year" essay was selected as a semifinalist in the 2009 Minnesota Twins competition.

The second I heard "Father of the Year," I thought of my dad; of course, I didn't think "year," I thought "lifetime." My dad just inspires me every day. The way he works, talks, acts... he is just a great dad.

My dad inspires me in such ways, you wouldn't imagine. Work, for example: he doesn't have a grudge against work. He finds something he likes and goes to work everyday with a positive attitude. He doesn't just work and wait for it to be over or take a rest; he is always looking for something to work on, ways to improve and many other things to do while working.

In speech, he is always correcting me when I mess up on grammar. Once in a car, after a year of correct grammar, I, out of nowhere, said, "I should've went there." and dad just yelped for some reason, like it was pure torture. Then he corrected me. Another thing is he tells me to pronunciate into microphones when talking to a crowd. During my Christmas program at school, I had a reading part, and my dad said I was the most confident in my reading and also, I was the only one who spoke clearly into the microphone. He also reminds me that a microphone is like a pencil, in ways, it is only good when you sharpen it (talking into it and pronunciating) and always helping me to talk more confidently.

Overall, my dad is a great dad. He gives great examples for working habits and he helps us to speak proper grammar. I love my dad. I only wish he would get off work earlier, so he could be home earlier than 4:30, when I get home at 3:40.