Essay Draft #2

Date

Stepdad vs Biological Dad

Rough Draft #2

“Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.”- Unknown.

For as long as I can remember my father, John Clark, never wanted to be in my life, but I still loved him because he was blood. The first time he ever broke my heart was when I was a child. I remember my mom’s friend babysitting me at her tiny cottage-like house. Suddenly, my mother came in crying, it wasn’t from sadness or pain, it was from anger.

“What’s wrong mommy” little me asked.

She pulled me in a tight hug and said we needed to talk about my father. I was expecting to hear that he died or was in the hospital, but I didn’t expect my mother to tell me that he packed up his family and left the state. I was confused. Why did he leave me? Where did he go? Does he even love me? Will he ever come back? A child should never have to ask themselves if their parent loves them, but I did. I wanted nothing more than to cry and scream on my babysitters hard, wooden floor, but I didn’t. I held it in till I went to bed and I cried myself to sleep wondering if my father ever truly loved me. I eventually moved on from that heartbreak and thought that I would never a father-daughter relationship like everyone else, but I longed and prayed for one every day.

Everything changed in 2010 when my mother, Stephanie Clark, asked if I wanted to speak with him. I was 13 with no real father figure in my life, so naturally I was excited and overjoyed that I was going to finally be loved by him. Things were great in the beginning, I felt proud to say that my father was back, and I wanted all my friends to meet him. All my mom every wanted for me to grow up with a dad and I finally felt like I was going to get the father-daughter relationship I dreamed about. I would spend the night at his house on weekends, and he would be working, but he would apologize by buying me whatever I wanted, which most of the time would be books instead of toys. I got to spend some of winter break with him along with the rest of his side of the family, and we would laugh, play games, start a fire, and just make fun of one another. Things were simple and fun up until I started high school, I was excited for him to come to volleyball games and marching band competitions, but I got an excuse every single time.

“I am not feeling good” he would text me.

“I work that night sweetheart” was the common excuse.

“My phone never went off” he would say if I called more than 3 times on game nights when my team already won.

He broke my heart the second time in high school. Suddenly, he would not reply to texts or calls from both my mom and I. Naturally, I thought he left the state again, but my mom and I found out he was still in the state he just wasn’t communicating with us anymore. I was hurt and the only way for me to get the anger out was to write him a letter stating my disappointment in him and my anger for him not being the father I needed. It took me a few days to write

-Mother’s boyfriend: Adam Brady

Adam Brady: He has always been there since 2013 and supported me in whatever I wanted to do. The late-night drives with my mom and her boyfriend are some of the best memories. My mom’s boyfriend helped raise even though he had two other daughters. I remember being nervous before asking him if I could call him dad and almost crying when he said he has always considered me his daughter.