Dear Dad

Dear Dad,

I don’t tell you this nearly enough, but I love you and I am so incredibly proud to be your daughter. Thank you for loving me more than I deserve. Thank you for being proud of me when I have accomplished little. Thank you for singing “You are my Sunshine,” because you will always be one of the few people that we be able to make me happy when skies are grey. Thank you for the Bible verses and reminding me that I should “Learn Everything,” so I can “Be anything.” Thank you for continuing to say that to me even when I felt like I was capable of nothing, much less anything. Thank you for building me up and being wonderfully critical at the same time. Thank you for never making me feel stupid even when I made stupid mistakes. Thank you for giving me faith because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Thank you for torturing me with NPR and Allison Krauss. I will always be your Prairie Home Companion. I will always sit in the car with you to wait for Car Talk to finish. Thanks for saying it best when you say nothing at all.

             100 miles away, sometimes I sit outside when they mow outside of my apartment, just so I can pretend to smell your grass decorated skin after landscaping.

Thank you for teaching me to swim and how to not drown in this world. Thank you for always responding, “look it up” whenever I’d ask what a word meant. I owe most of my vocabulary to you.  Thanks for passing down your OCD; people mock me for my keeping doors closed and lights off. I am okay with that.

            Thank you for listening to me even when you are busy at work; thanks for calling me back to listen to my insignificant life details. Thanks for existing in my life.

            Thank you for teaching me to be stronger than those that have hated me. Thank you for loving me when I was not strong enough. Thank you for not forgetting about me.

Thank you for supporting me through my silly endeavors. Thank you for approaching these endeavors like they were the most important thing in the world. Thank you for not comparing me to my brother so that I could find my own passions.

Thank you for not disappointing me. Thank you for not hating me when I have disappointed you.

Thank you for letting me fail miserably.

Thank you for encouraging to be better.

Thank you for understanding. Thank you for fighting.

Thank you for loving me relentlessly, a mere imperfection in this world, as if I were not this little flawed person.