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Narrative Essay (Proving Myself to My Dad)

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My father is a very traditional, conservative, religious man. A product of his time, upbringing, and culture. Abandoned by his mother, neglected by his father, and raised by an aunt who already had too many children of her own, my father has always had to fend for himself. From an early age he had to start working, I was once told by him that in the absence of his father, he looked up to his bosses for a role model. A lot of them were drunks and chauvinist. My father grew around these men, idolizing them and learning from them how to be a man. Years have passed but their voices still echo his.

Early on in my life I remember my father talking about how he long for a son. Having had two daughters and a still born, he knew that his …show more content…

No one from the SUV could come out and no one could go in.

A group of men gathered around, gazing at what little was visible from the SUV. We stopped to gaze as well. After a quick briefing by the bystanders about the rescue methods that ended I failure and when everybody was out of ideas, my father in a rakish way, and with an ego the size of a blimp said out loud “Wait!, I have a winch.” In that moment he was the hero, a savior, and for the first time in his life he felt that all the money he had spent on the truck had paid off, everybody came rushing towards him filled with hope and waiting to hear the plan, but that moment of glory and pride, came crashing down when my father realized that he didn’t know how to use it.

I tried to tell them that I knew how it worked but my words fell on deaf ears. After the men, and my father tried to “make it work” by looking at it, and tried to read a 120 page manual in 2 minutes, all the macho, all knowing, impatient men gave up. It was back to square one. Gaze at the SUV, which by now was even deeper in the mud.

After all that wasted, but amusing for me time, I went back to the truck, opened up the sun roof, stuck my head out and in a calm, confident, girly voice said “You guys, I know how to use the winch“… You could see the disbelief, mixed with a pinch of “how in the world does this girl know how to use it and I don’t” in my dad’s and the other men’s eyes… humiliating for them? Maybe. But

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