Dad,

I do not know really how to start this letter to you because I’m not entirely sure of what I want to say. All I know is that for the past month I have had this incredible compulsion to write something because we both know that I am better with my words when they are written out instead of verbally said. For all that I know this will turn into a couple paragraphs of me rambling. Or it could turn into something meaningful that we will both look back on 20 years from now. But I know for certain that I want to start this off by saying thank you….

Thank you.

Thank you for being my personal mechanic when something happens to my car. We both know I’m clueless when it comes to doing even the most basic of tasks when it comes to my car. Thank you for being my own personal Dr. Phil when I am going through hard times in life. If you charged me a dollar for all the advice that you have given me in the past that I ignored because I thought I “knew it all”, you would be a millionaire. Thank you for being my biggest supporter and also my biggest critic. Both are so critically important to have in a person’s life. I know that if I need advice on what I should do in my life or if I need an outside view on a situation, you will always give me your 100 percent honest opinion on the matter. But you are also always the first one to tell me that you are proud of my accomplishments and of me since I started college five years ago. All that I have wanted to do since I started school was to make you proud because your approval means the world to me, even if I sometimes lead you to believe that it doesn’t. Know that I always value your advice and opinions even if I can be stubborn and hardheaded at times. I would like to think it comes with being a 22-year-old who thinks she knows everything in life.

I also want to thank you for all of the amazing life advice you have given me in my 22 years of life. I have realized over the years that we are so much more alike than I originally thought. We both love to the fullest and give people the benefit of the doubt, even when they don’t always deserve our love or loyalty. We keep our hurt and sadness to ourselves because we do not want to bother others who are close to us, even though we only end up hurting more in the long run. But every time that I have fallen in the past, you have always been there to help me pick up the broken pieces and put them back together. I remember sitting on the garage floor while you were working on your truck one afternoon. I sat there in silence for a while trying to keep it together and figure out a way to ask you for advice, because I felt like everything was falling apart. And you told me a few words that I truly started to believe that day. You told me that I had to learn to love myself and to become the best version possible of myself in order to truly be happy. You said that once I did those two things, that I would attract the right kind of people into my life because they would be drawn to my happiness and confidence within myself. And I truly believe that now. In the past I always rejected that idea, thinking I could never love myself and that my happiness always hinged on another person, but that conversation that happened on the garage floor changed my mind for the better. It helped me realize that I needed to make a change in my life and to start on a journey to find the happiness buried within myself.

Thank you,

for being the best Dad I could have ever asked for. We have our ups and our downs like every parent and child does, but that never changes the fact that I love you and appreciate every single thing that you have done for me and will do for me in the future. Your advice and encouragement have helped me overcome many obstacles in life and has helped me grow into the person I am discovering that I am. We both deserve happiness and I know that when the time is right, we will both find our true happiness within ourselves. But until then, know that we both have each other to lean on when the days are rough and that we are never truly alone, because family is everything.

Love,

-H