Father

Flipping my minds over the memories that are stored in my brain, and venturing through the things I’ve been through. Never had I talk to my dad in a family way or heart to heart talk. Things weren’t going that well when I was young. My impression on my dad was, he’s someone fierce, he would never understand what I’m going through, he’s just someone selfish who thinks for himself and most importantly is he didn’t treat my mom that well. Ever since then, my relationship with my dad has never, literally, never got any closer. Talking about my dad, he had been my primary school form teacher for 3 years. As for the three years he’s being my form teacher, it’s not something to be proud of for what I have in mind.

And the thing is, there was no special treatment from my dad although he’s the one marking my test paper in primary school. Matters got worse when I was in secondary school. You see, my dad and my mom aren’t so close to each other. I used to put the blame on my dad and hated him. I had this kind of mindset that everything that went wrong in the family must be dad. I would shout back at him, and showing no respect at all when we had a fight. I hardly talk to my dad and would reluctantly go out to eat with him or hanging out like father and son would do. I don’t have a perfect dad.

Today, on Father’s day eve, we went out for dinner. At first, I felt quite “sien” just to sit around and eat. And as we were eating, we began to share the things that we wouldn’t have thought of sharing. We talked about the past, the relationship of my mom and dad and lots of things. Just right until the time when we had our cake, one of my sister came out with an idea of saying something grateful as an appreciation towards my dad. When it was my dad’s turn, one thing he said that touched and melted our heart so much was, “No matter what happened between us, you all are still my beloved children.” And when he was saying this, tears began to shed from his eyes. I have never seen my dad crying, what more to say that he’s an old tough guy. Well actually this was the second time but still quite shocking to us. I felt tears in my eyes too, though I didn’t let it out.

He’s my dad and he’s awesome. He worked very hard just to see the 8 of us grew up. Imagine the number of kids that he had to look after? Though he had never given us expensive presents or pamper us with delicious and tempting sweets when we were young, he gave us his love that even we ourselves didn’t notice. He respects the choices that we make and hardly goes against them. My dad is 61 years old now. He might be old but he’s still working hard to earn a living and support the family. He's a teacher, a "mechanic", a "plumber", a "farmer" and was a fisherman in our family. How amazing that he knows how to fish, plant, teach and fix the pipes and cars. These things just zap my mind and make me realize how my dad has been for the whole time. It’s just us not realizing how dad has been sacrificing himself.

He may not be the perfect father, but he’s a great dad to me. And I’m proud to be his son. The most important thing is, he loves us and cares for us and will always do. Sorry dad for being such a bad son for all the while. And I would like to wish you and dads out there, a happy Father’s day!