My dad, mon père. Since it's Father's Day, I found it appropriate to take the time to write about the prominent male figure in my life.

Unlike most of my family, my dad is very special to me. He came to America in the 1980s from Jamaica, and he's made a life for himself ever since. Truth be told, I don't know nearly as much about him as I'd like to, but from what I do know, he has accomplished a lot in life. He went to college at Princeton, and then Clemson — where he then met my mom. He had his own business, and he works hard every day in order to bring home his paycheck, and he loves his job as a computer technician. There's so many things I like about him.

He has also traveled a lot, as well. He was in the military and was stationed in Alaska, and also used to go places with my mom. They've been to England, Ireland, Barbados and many other places. He has many other stories and experiences too, many of which I have yet to hear of. Regardless, I admire him because he has experienced so many things that few people often get to experience.

He gave up his life of traveling and settled down in order to start a family, eventually having three children with my mom. That's just one thing he's done to show his dedication and love for us. I'm sure he's given up a lot in the early months and years of my life. Besides that, even in the earliest years of my life he'd always been easy-going. I did spend much more time with my mom and my aunts than I did with him, because he left for work around the time we left for school and got back around when we went to bed. But on the weekends I spent a lot of time with him too. I always thought he was more approachable than my mom, and that he was generally better. At the time, I was ignorant about what was going on in our family and I still liked and appreciated my mom, but my dad was just one step above for some reason.

My childhood went on, and he kept up with his selflessness. There are tons of times where he would comfort me when I was crying, buy me amazing presents for my birthday, teaching me lessons while rarely yelling or putting his hands on me and he was just generally an amazing father figure. Even now that I've grown up, and our relationship has wavered a lot, I still appreciate him more than most of my other family — more than he probably thinks, unfortunately. We still have many qualms, mainly due to my mom, and how my decisions and lifestyle choices have affected the way I treat her. Also, I don't know much about his side of the family, and I found out relatively recently that his son was from a completely different marriage than his current one. But despite all this, topped with all of my problems with depression and other mental disorders, our relationship has survived, one of the few from my family that has still survived.

I'm infinitely grateful for him, so much so that I can't express it all in just one short article. Happy Father's Day, dad, and I really appreciate everything you have done!