You’re my hero.
Dads are the first men to enter our lives. They came before our first loves, and they’ll be there for our last. I don’t think girls (especially teenage ones) take enough time to appreciate and thank their dads for the impactful role they’ve played in our lives so far. I know it’s not Father’s Day, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s typical for girls our age to have a better relationship with our mom. I guess it’s a “girl thing” but you probably feel like she understands you better, and is easier to talk to about the things you’re going through in your life. I mean let’s face it, he calls it “your time of the month” with a horrified look, he purposely acts like a goofball to embarrass you in front of you friends, and have you ever had a “boy talk” with daddio? Kind of awkward. But I’ve never really felt that way though. I actually think life would be dull without him. I haven’t just thought of my mom as someone I could look up to and talk about anything with, but my dad too. And here’s why I think that is.
Once you’ve experienced a parent being absent in your life, you really start to appreciate the true value of family. He wasn’t purposely absent, he was in the Navy.
In 2001, a couple months after 9/11, he was sent overseas for a year. What is Bahrain? Why are we moving? Where is Daddy? Questions haunted my six-year-old head until I finally realized daddy didn’t come home from work that night, or the next for what seemed like a lifetime. That goodbye he gave me before I went over my friend’s house? That was one I wouldn’t get for a while, it finally clicked why my mom’s eyes glistened with tears. My mom, so strong and beautiful, eventually educated me on the war the best she could, and kept telling me and my three-year-old sister that daddy would be home “soon.” It’s a blessing in disguise I was a completely oblivious first grader at the time, because if that goodbye happened right now, I wouldn’t know how to handle myself. I admire everyone who is brave enough to experience that type of heartache because it really sucks. After a year spent sending and receiving care-packages, shedding one too many tears, and my grandpa acting as a father figure in my life, I realized I would forever cherish my dad’s presence and never take him for granted after this. I’ll probably never embrace anyone in a hug so tight than I did in the airport the Tuesday night he came home. Since I was a little girl, he’s made the biggest effort to never miss any performance of my sister and I, which includes dance, twirling, and cheerleading—(he’s a trooper) but, he never has. He goes above and beyond to be the best father he could be, and I’ve never met anyone else with a heart so big. Both he and I are permanently changed from the year without each other.
The purpose of this isn’t to brag about how amazing my dad is. It’s to see the amazing-ness in all of your dads too. Until you lose something, you really don’t realize how much you’ll miss it. That isn’t just a cliché quote, it’s true. Dads try really hard to be cool, funny and cute; just laugh at his corny jokes and appreciate that you have a dad. He won’t be here forever. One day he is going to be fragile and grey; you’re going to miss when he chaperoned ALL your fieldtrips, when he called to check up on you 100 times, when you guys got in arguments and just wish he would understand you love that stupid boy he hated. So just give him a hug and say thanks. Thanks for being a guy that will never break my heart, who will support me no matter what, who always wanted the best for me, and thanks for always making me laugh—even if I’m laughing at you.
This one is for you, dad! Because I know you’re reading this. And this is also for all the other really great fathers in the world—military hero or not, alive or in heaven: you’re a hero in some kind of way.
Growing up my dad and I always had a little “thing.”
He would tuck me in bed and say “you’re my princess for…?”
I would say, “ever!”
and he would say “and…?”
and I would say “ever!”
I’m still your princess, dad. Forever and ever, I love you.