Hey, Daddy. It's been a while since I've heard from you. To this day I still wonder why you never wanted much to do with me. I wonder why you were never a real father to me. I could never understand how someone can have a child and not love them with all of their heart. It never really made sense to me. I've always been so naive. I've always loved you and always wanted a father-son relationship with you and even when you were pushing me away, I still believed that you did, too. I still believed that you loved me. Even with all the times momma made you spend time with me and made you call to talk to me and made you contribute to help raise me, I still believed that somewhere deep down you loved me. For the longest time, I thought this was normal. I always hated how the other kids' dads would be here spending time with their kids while you were never here with me, but you would always assure me that as soon as you had time off from work that we would be together, and I believed you. You would tell me that you loved me and I would feel all better. But your problem was you used the same excuses all the time and eventually, even as naive and gullible as a was, I started catching on. On my 15th birthday, I realized that there was never going to be a "later." I realized you didn't really love me as much as I thought you did or as much as I wanted you to. Even still, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I still kept reaching out to you, trying to form some kind of relationship or bond with you, but you always had excuses.

I guess now you've gotten tired of making up excuses and decided to leave my life for good. Well, I just want you to know that I'm not mad anymore. Even though I was mad at you for the longest time, I forgive you. Although you were never around to see me grow up, you've actually taught me a lot. You taught me the importance of family. You see, because of you, I want to get married and have kids because I want to show my wife the love that you never showed my mom. I want to show my kids the love of a father that you never showed me. I know how much it hurts to feel like your father doesn't love you and I never want my kids to go through that. I know what it's like for a single mother to raise her kids by herself because her children's father walked out on them and I never want my wife to go through that. Thanks to you, my wife and my kids will always know how much I love them. So even though you weren't ever around, you taught me how to be a better man. So if you ever come to your senses and realize the mistakes you've made, don't beat yourself up too much. Just know that I forgive you and I still love you. Know that even though you screwed up, you have a son who learned from your mistakes and is a better man because of it.