You left my mother in the laboring room alone, without your support. Yes, she had her family and they are pretty great. But nothing can amount to the feeling that she would have had if you were there. After I was born, you demanded to have a DNA test done on me because you were "sure" I wasn't yours. So, in the middle of December, my mother carried me out into the cold to prove you wrong — surprise! You are the father!

Did that change anything? No.

The court ordered that I had weekends with you after a certain age and those are the days that I dreaded. I kicked and screamed. I told my mother that I hated her for making me go see you and your "other" family. And you know the worst part? When I would get to your house, you wouldn't even bat an eyelash. Your wife had to take care of me. My step-siblings did not even know who I was when I was dropped off. You laid on the couch like the sleazeball that you are and didn't pay any mind to me for those three long days. When my mother picked me up, it was just tears of frustration because my little mind couldn't understand why a man hated me so much.

I began to think that every man was a bad man and that none of them would ever love me, but thank God my grandfather proved me wrong.

Those weekends soon came to an end because everyone realized that nothing was coming out of it. So instead of going to your house on the weekends, I started going to my grandparents. My grandfather adopted me as his own, realizing that I needed a father figure in my life so he taught me all of the life lessons that you failed to.

He taught me to never lie unless it's a white lie. He taught me how to put a worm on a hook and how to take a fish off. He taught me how to cast a fishing pole and how to get it unstuck from the stumps that I was so determined to fish out of the pond. He taught me how to drive a manual – something every girl should know how to do. He taught me how to defend myself, just in case I met a man one day that looked like you.

But most of all, he taught me that I deserved to be cherished, to be loved, and to be wanted.

I have struggled with that so much because, in my eyes, I was never good enough for you. I would see you in town or on Facebook with your "other" family and think, "Something must be wrong with me if he loves them but not me."

But my grandfather begged to differ. He thought the sun rose and set on me. He thought I was the bees' knees — just ask his friends.

My grandfather was there for me through everything — my health problems, my boy drama, and my academic struggles. He was there through the hard times so he could be my rock if I needed him to be. He was there. You were not because you chose the easy way out. And because he raised me, I am the woman that I am today. I have his last name because I am his own. He put his blood, sweat, and tears into shaping my life. He would stay up late at night to make sure that I would go to bed at a decent hour from studying. He made sure that I wasn't pushing myself too hard when I was in recovery. He was waiting for me after graduation just to tell me how proud he was of me.

Thanks to him, I'm here, at Virginia Tech, double majoring in Neuroscience and Psychology. And he would be damn proud. So I guess I have you to thank, in a way. Thank you for being a coward. Thank you for being afraid of the unknown. If it hadn't been for your laziness and unwillingness to try, I wouldn't have been my grandfather's "surprise daughter." If it hadn't been for you choosing the easy way out, I might have ended up just like you. I might not have known my grandfather like I did and that would be terrible.

So, thank you, Dad, for being a disappointment because, in a way, you made my life so much better by removing yourself and letting a real man take a role that you never deserved to have.