My father would pick me up from my grandmother’s house every day. One day when I was six, he didn’t show up. Later that day, my mother told me he went to “school.” I believed

it for a while. A year of two later I caught on. I found out he was in jail. When I spoke on the phone with him he would constantly say “I’ll be home soon.” I believed him till five years passed. I was eleven years old. Every birthday I would receive a letter from him. Every letter I read, I began to cry. The feeling of an absent father is really hard to deal with. I always dreamed of attending a father–daughter dance, but there can’t be a father–daughter dance without the father. I miss the hugs and kisses that I used to get. Nine years of an absent father really hurts. I almost feel as if I was ABANDONED. I feel that it’s his fault, why I am missing a part of my heart that hasn’t been completely developed. Then again, people make mistakes. I won’t give up on him; neither would I throw him under the bus.

My mother constantly tells me how much he didn’t do for me. No child like me wants to hear their parent trying to bring up negative things about someone they truly love. I hate when people call him a deadbeat. I feel he tries. He says he will improve when he gets home. I have hope. I truly love my father, whether he has been here or not. One day I will grow up to have children. I would do anything to make sure they won’t go through what I’m going through now.