Letter to my Son | Teen Ink

Letter to my Son

December 3, 2019
By Anonymous

Dear Jovian,I chose to deliver this message to you today because it is the day of your birth and holds a big importance to me.I don’t really know how to start this letter to you off just know it took me a long time to finish this letter. You are my first born and like Nba Youngboy said “You made a nigga strong you the one”. I already know your going to be just like me I can already feel it, I just don’t like what comes with our name. Having the same name as me is going to be probably one of the hardest things you will have to deal with because everything that I’ve did you now in a way inherit it and that’s my fault but it’s just something you have to learn to live with and love. Hopefully when you grow up your still not hearing “What you talkin bout Willis” because after a couple of times that gets annoying but is also something you will have to learn to understand with this last name.  You’ll soon get used to it and it will be nothing to you and you will come to love your whole name. There are a lot of things that you will have to learn in growing up whether it’s with street smarts or book smarts I want you to be both and able to best fit yourself in any situation. But, I’m trying to make it to where you won’t have to grow up how I grew up but still take steps to make it to where you want to be. In a way, my dad didn’t let me grow up how he grew up but still let me do some of the things that he did not make it bad for myself but for me to learn because I was hardheaded and I hope that’s a characteristic that you don’t have. I truly think that you will be something special and all of your other siblings. I just know in so many ways your going to hate me in your lifetime but soon be able to forgive me whether it’s you remembering me giving you your first whooping and what it is for, or me giving you a chance to play in any sport that you choose to participate in. Now some things may not always go your way but you just have to learn how to go with the flow, I'm going to do my best to make sure you have everything you need in order to succeed in life and whatever you decide to do as my father did. Growing up I didn’t always have everything that I wanted and had to work for some things, you won’t have it that way but I will make sure you still know what you come from and your history and make sure that the Willis name will always live on. Some general things I know you will remember that I can recall are life being more simple and  the nights you’re going to stay up doing your homework. The reason I say life being more simple is because as you get older you start to evolve and as your doing so life gets harder and people start dying whether it’s young people or old people it’s bound to happen in this country that we live in. You’re going to reflect when your in college and your away from home remember that time dad whooped me because my grades weren’t right and your going to love me for that because if I didn’t you wouldn’t be where you are at that point in time. I want your life to be able to fill your every need in life and not for things to be given to you but for you to actually work for things when you grow up whether it’s shoes, clothes, etc anything worth money and teaching you the importance of saving money. Now, with all this being said when you receive this letter and you read it for the first time it’s not going to strike you on the first read or the second read. But as you grow older, you will come to reflect on this letter and read it over and over again for my remembrance and reflect on what it says and who I’ve come to be as a person in your life and I would say you only have the choice to love me or hate me, but you only have the choice to love me because that’s the only thing that is possible for you to do.


Sincerely,Your Father


The author's comments:

An African-American, first-year, first generation Menlo college student pursuing a business and entrepreneurship degree from Sacramento, California. Coming straight from Sacramento he took on two jobs as a freshman in college and got a leadership award in commendation of coming to Menlo College.    


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