Standing next to my dad that whole day, I felt like I was still looking up to him.
Standing there, I was so anxious! Talking to Gus didn’t help my nerves any. Here I was, in the visiting room for the graduation and celebration of my group Guiding Rage Into Power. I was about to perform my very first spoken word piece, not just in front of a few people, but in front of a whole room! Nervous doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt, but those nerves were overshadowed by my anticipation of seeing my parents. I only had one memory of my parents together, and that was when I was about five, the day they separated. About twenty years later, they got back together, and now they were going to be there with me, in the same room. I hadn’t seen my dad since I was 17, back in juvenile hall. So when I saw them, well, my mom at least, because I didn’t recognize my dad at first, I started crying. All my memories of him were of this towering figure. Walking up to him and hugging him… that hadn’t changed. Talking and laughing with them in that space was so powerful. When I got up to do my spoken word piece, I brought my notes, because I knew I needed them, just like, years later, I realized how much I needed my parents. Standing next to my dad that whole day, I felt like I was still looking up to him. So when I got the pictures of us and saw that I might’ve actually been a bit taller than him, I realized how much I missed being a kid with him.
