I had just started my freshman year when my parents decided they were getting a divorce. I was going to be moving to a different house and I remember joking with my boyfriend at the time that I was going to be moving far away. I was never really affected seriously by the divorce. Of course I didn’t like it, but I think I always understood that my parents would be much happier without each other. My dad wasn’t happy that he wouldn’t be seeing us even half as much because we only went to his house every other weekend. Being a teenager, I didn’t go over there every time I was supposed to because I usually had plans with friends. As I got older, my appearances became less and less until I pretty much stopped going over there. I never had a close relationship with my dad and not being around him much didn’t help that at all.

Moving to a new house made me think that the divorce would become much more of a reality. Actually, it didn’t seem like anything was different. When we all lived together my dad would sit in the computer room and watch TV while my mom, sister, and I would sit in the living room together and watch TV. He rarely ever came out of that room to watch TV or interact with us. So when we were at our new house it just seemed like Dad was in a different room as usual. I never felt like a big presence was missing, but maybe that was because I was pretty much done being raised by my parents. I felt like I was anyways.

Now that I’m older, when I look back on the past four years I realize that I let a lot of things get in the way of my relationship with my dad. He really is a great dad and is always looking out for the best for my sister and me, but there are certain things that he does that I don’t agree with. He can be very stubborn and thinks he is always right, but when he is wrong he can’t admit it and I really don’t like that quality in anyone; especially not my dad. I wish that things could’ve worked out differently, I wish that I would’ve had a closer relationship with my father, I wish that I wasn’t realizing all of this just now, but most of all I wish that I didn’t have so many regrets.