Graduation . Part 8
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Continued from previous blog post
Graduation
He didn’t make it to my graduation. He arrived home the night after my graduation date. He made it to my sister’s graduation. Not on mine.
That was when the barrage of teasing flooded me like a river from all of my siblings …. “you are not a favorite, Dad doesn’t love you, you are adopted, so what if you have great grades, Dad didn’t go to your graduation, etc. etc.”
It’s funny now as I look back. But it wasn’t funny then!
Some people might say, you have an awful childhood! Awful siblings! But HEY, they were all just kids, too! Like I was! 🙂
My older sister received a car FULL of gifts. My Dad went shopping for her. And of course, he told me it wasn’t his fault that he didn’t make it to MY graduation where I received HONORS when any parent should have been proud enough to be present, he wasn’t there for me. He blamed my Mom for not clarifying the graduation dates. And my Mom of course said, “No! I told you! You didn’t pay attention!” … back and forth… 🙂
My Dad showered my older sister with all material gifts and so it wasn’t a family secret that he played favorites. He liked to play favorites. He seem to enjoy his children competing for his attention. So that was it. But I wasn’t stupid. My Dad knows that.
My older sister loved material things and gifts and jewelry the nice girly things so my Dad gave it to her. (It was for me, funny, because even back then, I already knew that my older sister was gay, it was just that nobody believed me).
My Dad also knew that I was allergic to “fake stuff” – I got that from my Mom… we both cannot wear any jewelry that is below 18 karats. We both get rashes. So among all the kids, I was the one who cannot wear wrist “watches” or fake jewelry.
So while my brothers were busy teasing me about my Dad not loving me enough to attend my own graduation, and then comparing my sister’s car full of gifts, versus the gift my Dad gave me..
.. later on I did the math.
My Dad’s ONE gift to me, is far more expensive than the car full of gifts he gave my older sister.
I was 11 years old when I graduated from Gradeschool. When I transferred schools, (one private girls “Grade School” to another private girls High School) there was a qualifying entrance exam. I scored so high that I skipped a grade. My parents didn’t have to do anything about it, they were just notified that I was going to be put in that grade level because whatever battery of tests they gave, deemed me worthy to get into that grade. Cool, I thought. 🙂
So back to my Dad’s gift, he gave me, an 11 year old, back then, a Gold Watch. A real gold watch, he and I shopped for it, I picked it, I remember it was a combination gold watch, an analog watch and a digital watch rolled into one very elegant gold ladies’ watch. It WAS expensive, and I knew it. And my Dad paid for it cash. And he told me not to tell anyone in our family how much the watch actually costs, because everyone else WILL ask for the same thing, or same value. He just said that my gold watch graduation gift, I deserved it because he knew I worked hard to get those grades.
Continued on next blog post
Related Articles:
The Basics . Part 1
Final Answer . Part 2
Varsity . Part 3
Clique . Part 4
Perks . Part 5
Complex . Part 6
Quarter . Part 7
Graduation . Part 8
Tutor . Part 9
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