Dad

When I was a baby, my mom and dad got divorced.  My mom got custody of all the kids, but he fought for us.  The agreement was every summer and every other Christmas we'd visit our dad.  Then at age 14, each kid got to decide if they visited my dad in alabama or not.  It was fine at first, but then I got to be in junior high and all I wanted in life was to spend the summers in Utah with my friends.  It seemed like that's when everything happened.  I couldn't wait until I was 14.  For some reason though, when I turned 14 I still had to visit my dad in Alabama.  I grew to resent being forced to be somewhere without my friends.  I became moody and rebellious because of that; my crazy teenage hormones also played a huge part in the rebelliousness.  I constantly fought with my step mom during the summers and I was almost always grounded; trust me I was a monster.  Then one Christmas I decided to just buck up and deal with it.  I didn't say anything rude for a good 2 weeks.  Go me.  Then I just snapped and mouthed off to my step-mom.  Because of that I got kicked out of my dads house on New Years Day.  Literally.  My step-mom kicked me down the stairs and out the door.  My dad packed my things and drove me to the airport and told me I was never welcome in his house unless I got an attitude change.  I was 16 at the time, and from then on I refused to speak to him.  I hated my dad.  I was overwhelmed by the fact that not even my own father could love me.

In college one of my roommates was really close with her dad, but he died while she was in high school.  She missed him so much all the time.  One of my other good friends also had a huge fallout with his dad, but he just decided to get over it and started working on his relationship with his dad.  Him and my roommate were inspirations to me.  They made me realize life is too short to hold resentments and grudges.  They are unnecessary and silly things.  I finally gained the courage to call my dad my first year in college.  It was so nice talking to him.  Since then our relationship has grown tremendously, and I have realized that my dad has loved me all along.  He's made mistakes, but so have I.  I am grateful for the relationship we have today.  He walked me down the aisle and generously paid for my wedding.  It's been so nice these past two days to spend some time with him!  I love my poppa!