RDP Wednesday: PERPLEXED

When my Dad passed away some of my friends reached out to me and told me how

much he had meant to them.

He encouraged one of my friends to see the world- travel to England and Scotland

he encouraged a few of them to go to college and

he even helped a few of them with their homework.

When I said I had plans on doing the same thing, he would smiled and told  tell me

not everyone could cut it in college, that going to the U.K was expensive.

It was a nice dream wasn’t it? But I had a great job in a t-shirt store ( when I was in

Highschool ) at the Mall

and that I should be proud of that.

The next Summer after that conversation my Dad took that trip to the U.K.  and a few

years later my friend and her pals from College went too.

So. Yeah. I never went to the U.K. I never went to college and I worked retail for more

then half of my adult life- FYI it’s not a job, it’s a sentence. You know, like the sentences

they hand out to convicts.

This is what I remember about my Dad ‘being there ‘ when my friends needed a

parental figure to encourage them along-

I remember one of my friends standing there when my Dad said that college wasn’t for

everyone and that going to the U.K. was out of my reach and that I had a real future in

selling t-shirts.

In one breath he encouraged one girl to the hilt  and in the next breath

simply-  he did not.

Years later when she told me,  ‘ that he was one of the good ones ‘

my brain sort of locked up and I really didn’t know what to say to that.

I still don’t.