I was never daddy's little girl; I was close to my father. I was young when he got up and abandoned my family for another. The memories I have of him were when he was a drunk and snored so loud I could here him from down the hall. I was never fond of him. He was not anybody I wanted to look up too or even wanted to be a role model for my brother. My mom raised my brother and me, while he had an easy life with his new family. I was very resentful of my father even at a very young age. As I grew up, I learned that everything happens for a reason.
Not having a father figure around taught me how to be independent. I grew up thinking I never needed to be taken care of by anyone. I worked hard for everything that I have now. He never once helped me buy my books for school or pay for my car payments. I worked at jobs he didn't approve of, and I didn't care because who was he to say where I can and cannot work? The moment he left me, he didn't have any right to tell me what to do anymore. To me, my mom was not just my mom, but she was also my father figure in my life. As the years gone by since he left, he would visit every so often. Those visits were days I spent working. I had to work to prove to him I did not need him around. I was doing perfectly fine without him. He treated me as if I was still five years old. I am much older than that; there are no longer curfews in my life, there was no longer the "no boy rule," anymore. I am a grown woman and I am able to make my own decisions without daddy's approval. Whether he accepted that or not, but his little girl was no longer little. .
I see my father maybe once a year or twice every other year, depending how important he thinks it is to visit his children. I never look forward to him either way. He calls me the disappointment child. I may not be a future doctor like my stepsister, but I will be happy. Every decision I made since the day he left has kept me happy.