MY DAD’S QUIET LEGACY

Sometimes when I look back at how much I have changed and grown, I just remind myself that nothing is truly impossible as long as there is a willingness to make it happen. I was young and naive but back then, I felt like I was smart and wise. My dad would always caution me when I did some things that were inappropriate and I’d frown and wish he’d just let me have my way. I hated being corrected. I was foolish but it was fine because I was seen as a child, but that didn’t stop my dad from always trying to correct me when I did something wrong or stupid.

I wasn’t opportune to learn from my mum and even though that seemed like a good reason to become wayward, I was reminded constantly by people around me to be more than what I am made from. The truth is, I acted the way I did mostly because I knew people could easily just blame it on my parents for not doing a good job but over time, I learnt the beauty in becoming the best of myself regardless of where I am from. It was hard. My environment didn’t completely help either but I just kept looking for that one good reason to stick to doing my best.

If there is one valuable thing I learnt growing up from those around me (my dad especially), it will be respect. I wasn’t always respectful growing up. I grew up thinking I could talk to anyone the way I liked as long as I had something to say. The sad part was that I thought I was doing the right thing by speaking up for myself but then, I used the wrong approach. I learnt afterwards that respect is reciprocal. I have to give it to get it back.

My dad would always tell my siblings and I to greet our elders and talk politely to people, whether young or old. Growing into adulthood, my siblings and I got a lot of compliments for this particular quality that we exhibited. A lot of people still think that we stayed with both our parents or we probably stayed with our mum and not our dad because of some of the characters we portray. It was that interesting because everyone that we met just assumed we lived in a great and complete home but that’s not completely true.

My dad was a busy man. He needed to provide for us but that didn’t stop him from guiding us and imbibing in us values that still help us in our day-to-day interactions with people.

This is my response to the realtalk prompt. Thank you for reading through. 💜