To the man who took part in creating me,

I've always wanted to write an open letter to you. I'm not the best with words, but I know exactly how I feel and that's all I need to write this. Let me start by saying that I don't hate you, but it is impossible for you to mend my broken heart from when you left. You leaving left me with so many questions, many that are still unanswered 6 years later.

A lot of people didn't like the fact that I held a grudge against you for many years. Nobody quite understood how I was feeling and many people often told me to just "give you a chance". So guess what I did? I gave you a chance many chances and sometimes I regret that, mainly because of every chance that I gave you, you ruined it. I have such a hard time trusting people now and I've never been so cautious about letting people into my life because I'm afraid they'll up and leave just like you did.

This open letter is also a thank you letter, so thank you. Thank you for allowing me to see how strong my mother could be. Sometimes it was hard on her to all of the sudden take on a single parent role, but she did it and I got to witness it all. We now have such an unbreakable bond, and I couldn't imagine life without it.

You leaving hit me hard. I cried way too much and stayed up for way too many nights wondering why you never came back or why I wasn't enough for you to come back. I forgive you for missing the past 6 years of my life. You missed a lot of milestones for me and I cannot tell you how heartbroken I still am. I expected you to be in the audience when I walked across the graduation stage last May, but you weren't. I didn't even get a message from you saying, "Happy Graduation", but that's fine. I didn't get any "Happy Birthday" messages, either. So I didn't and no longer have high hopes or expectations.

Things don't always go as planned and sometimes the "perfect little family" ends up differently than it does in the storybooks, but I've realized that's O.K. Maybe it's a good thing that I'm so cautious about who I trust now. I'm stronger and much wiser than I have ever been. I forgive you, but please don't ask for another chance.

Good luck in whatever you do and wherever life takes you.