Happy Father’s Day!

That’s me and my dad. I was about nine months old in this picture when we were still living in Canoga Park, California.

My dad and I have a love-hate relationship. I adored my dad when I was a kid because I thought he was the smartest man in the world. He knew so much about everything, especially technology. He taught me how to type, how to use computers, showed me how to build my first PC, he even encouraged me to go into programming because he was confident that I would do well.

Over the years we started drifting apart. As much as he is smart, he’s also the traditional chauvinistic dad, and stubborn at that. We’d get into many arguments over his expectations and my decisions in life. And even though he’s my dad, and I should respect him, I always put up a fight whether they were big or small. I’m just as stubborn as he is and I will never give up an argument when I know that he’s wrong.

I finally decided to moved out on my own during my college years and got involved in other things like going out, having boyfriends, social networking, etc. Having that distance helped my relationship with my dad but our conversations became brief and less frequent. I only see him now on a few occasions: Christmas, Chinese New Years, and Father’s Day. We still talk when I visit but its not like how things were before. And I accept that.

For what its worth, he is the reason for the person I am today. Although no one seems to understand him as much as I do, especially my sisters and my mom… Through the good and bad, I still love my dad and he knows that. Happy father’s day daddy.