“Love is just a
good memory. Successful and powerful people don’t make decisions based on
emotion but on logic and determination. Are you the weak or the strong? Are you
ordinary or extraordinary? Or are you just one of those who lives their life
based on a daily emotion instead of on a long term and focused journey?”
- A recent text from my dad.
- A recent text from my dad.
To me, love is power; love is success; love is logical;
love takes determination; love can be weak and love can be strong; love is
extraordinary; and love is life. However, my father understands life as a bank
building, commercialistic race. Those on top of the ladder have the numbers to
show for it. As bitter as I made that sound, it really just means he’s a hard
working and determined man who wants to provide above and beyond his family’s
expectations and needs. He wants to build a name for himself, suppress his
childhood memories, and outshine it with his adulthood and business success. He
has dreams he longs to achieve and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
My father began his business when I was young. As I got
older, the firm slowly became more successful. But more success led to less of
dad around. Absent. That is how I would sum up my dad’s attendance to my
orchestra concerts, press conferences, award ceremonies, and more. I appreciate
him for what he does for the family, but I wish he’d see that it isn’t more
money that I need– it’s more of him that I need. Financial security and wealth
are his goals and what he bases success off of.
Be that as it may, those are his dreams, not mine. That
is the borderline to my father and me. There is this DMZ of vast
misunderstanding and differences. I choose to live my life in happiness and
love, and let wealth come second. The difference between my father and I is
that I will never let the desire of wealth change me. I will never let it
distract me from my responsibility to love.
Why I write about love and money is not to ramble on
about my sinister feelings for my dad’s business or his life choices, but to
remind myself how my father has influenced me. He’s taught me, indirectly, how
to not lose myself in my own success, but instead how to balance family and
work, when it comes my time to. In addition, my rebellion against him has given
me the power to love unconditionally. Unlike my father, I am accepting towards
everyone despite flaws and mistakes. My father’s influence has helped me define
and draw the boundaries between the two things I choose to chase heavily in my
life: success and love. School is important to me. I put school before a
romance, but I don’t put it before my family. My family is first, and I wish my
father thought the same.
So dad, the answer is this: I can be successful, powerful, logical, determined, strong, and
extraordinary – along with loving.
