By Zack Kromer, Student CLE Denver
During my first two years of High School, I was notorious for procrastinating and going to great lengths to avoid work — even going to the extent of throwing away my math homework, so my dad would not know that I wasn’t doing it. I was always convinced that I could not handle the amount of work then, let alone all the work in college — so why bother? My grades were always suffering due to my lack of devotion to school. Throughout that time, my dad was always my biggest supporter and advocate, always encouraging me and telling me that if I put any effort at all into school, I would succeed. I, of course, never believed him and continued to ignore my work.
This unwillingness to do work, and ignorance of my dad’s advice continued until the beginning of my senior year. I had been to a summer program that would prepare me for college, called CLE. There I had begun to accept the idea of work as OK and overcome my fears about life. The night before I started school, my dad and I had another one of our discussions/arguments about doing work. This one was different. Instead of taking all the advice my dad gave me (which this time was about accepting that I must work) and throwing it in my mental trash can, I took it to heart. I realized that I had to accept that I need to work, and that I WAS capable of handling all the work I had to do. At that point, my grades improved drastically, and I started to take control of my academic life.
I see now.
I had been fighting this concept of work for my entire life, always telling my dad that I was incapable, or that “kids don’t have to do work.” And all of a sudden, I realized my errors and saw that I could work, just like my dad always said. I owed my dad a HUGE apology for putting him through years of arguing and defiance. It was just ridiculous how much I fought putting any effort into anything.
I have apologized to my dad about this many times, in many forms. Sometimes it’s in the form of a standard “I’m sorry,” sometimes it is in the form of me telling my dad how much I appreciate him, and now I write this essay. So, I am sorry for all the years of apathy. I am sorry for all the defiance. I am sorry for all the fighting. I am sorry for all the stupidity, and most of all, I am sorry for all the pain and suffering I put you through while you were trying to help me, Dad. Thank you for all the hard work that you have put into helping me through life.
