Hearing “You’re Plummer’s kid?!” when I first got to Cairn University soon became an everyday thing. Students and staff are normally shocked and happy when they find out that I’m Dr. Plummer’s son. I get so many questions ranging from, “Does Dr. Plummer use big words a lot when he is with your family?” to funny questions like, “Do you ever text your Dad asking for help on homework or for quizzes?” If it makes you feel better, I don’t know a lot of the vocabulary he uses too.

At first I thought it would be really strange having my Dad as a professor. In my mind I thought that that’s my father who helped raise me, watched me play sports, watched me grow up, and now he’s going to be grading me? Jokingly I thought, “What do I call him? Dad or Dr. Plummer?” As my first semester at Cairn progressed, it became very normal. I love that he is on campus, because moving from the Chicagoland area and having to say goodbye to a whole bunch of friends was a very hard transition for me. My Dad has always been there for me. What I love most is that he always makes time and leaves the door open for me if I need anything, but he also respects and gives me space because I am in college now.

Having my Dad be a professor at Cairn didn’t come without a cost. The past 5 years have been hard not having him around except for breaks and occasionally some weekends while I was at our home in Illinois with my mom and sister. He missed a little of me growing up, missed some birthdays, and never got to go to one of my high school football or baseball games. With that being said, having him on campus makes up for the time that we missed. We have a really close relationship (as you can tell from my Instagram if you follow me). We travel to NY a lot to be with family, we go to Chick Fil-A for dinner before his night time apologetics class, and anytime he has to go speak somewhere I’ll come along too.

Students and staff often stop me and speak highly about my Dad. Most of the time, they tell me he is brilliant, respectful, caring, and funny. It’s always nice to hear that, but what stands out to me is his hunger for God, his hunger for others to grow, and how meaningful education is to him. He taught me that being a “Christian” is not cool and will never be considered cool. He often reminded me to not live for people or for things on this earth because the true treasure won’t be on the earth that we live on now. I struggle with school, but my Dad has helped teach me to never give up and to work hard in everything I do. I was raised to never settle for doing what is “easy.” Education is important in my family, but my Dad stressed it the most because his mother stressed it to him. I now really appreciate that he did that because he helped me to love learning, reading, and education more, and that is a gift that no other person has done for me. I love my Dad, and I am proud I get to call him “My Dad.” He’s impacted my life more than he’ll ever know, and continues to do so while we both are at Cairn. If I grow up to be half the man he is, I will rest happy with that.