Telling My Story

Telling My Story

  • Submitted By: bmoney
  • Date Submitted: 01/21/2009 2:45 AM
  • Category: Miscellaneous
  • Words: 1238
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 1

President- Elect Barack Obama once said “If we are honest with ourselves we’ll admit that too many fathers are missing , missing from too many lives and too many homes” , and one of those homes was mine. Growing up without a father has been the reality to the majority of African- American children over a number of years. Too many fathers have walked away from their responsibilities, making life almost unbearable for the mother and child. This was the unpleasant situation my mother and I had to face.
The first time I saw my father was when I was eight years old. Prior to that I seen no pictures or was told nothing about him from my mother and family. So I thought for those eight years it was normal and perfectly fine to not have a father. Of course I heard other children talking about their dads and the fun things they would do with their fathers. That did not phase me because I felt happy about the situation I was in . I received heart- warming affection and love from my mother and grandmother. They gave me what ever I asked and treated me in a way which I had no complaints as a young boy. While going to school and playing with friends who shared the same skin color as me, I found out boys and girls my age and in my community also had no father in their lives. Now I am able to understand this was a deep rooted issues in the Black community.
But one summer day , my family was having a barbeque and everyone was enjoying themselves. At one moment some man walked in the backyard, who I

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could not recognize but he was staring directly at me. I was playing with my cousins and this same man walks up to me , who I never seen before and puts his hand on my head and tells me he is my father. At eight years old I felt no connection to this man, matter of fact he was a stranger to me. He began talking and expressing his feelings to me but I was not embracing it. Then he asked me Are you happy to see me ? And I know I did not say...

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