Letter To My Dad

Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/15/09

Dear Dad,

I am currently writing this letter to you in order to thank you for participating in my interview of you the other day. You really helped me a lot because I was in a slight crunch for time and I know you had other things that you had to do. But even more than thanking you for the interview, I wanted to thank you for all of the things that you have helped me with throughout my life. Ever since I was a little kind, you have always been by my side to push me in the right direction. God only knows that I would have rather been doing anything else than schoolwork. You never gave up on me though, you might have gotten frustrated and yelled at me a few times, but you never gave up on me. I still remember that time that you threatened to not pay for my college tuition last year if I didn’t get good grades this year. We sat down and had a big talk and in the end, you basically ended up deciding that I would have to go into the marines to pay for school. WELL IN YOUR FACE!!! I got the good grades, didn’t I? Now you’re stuck paying for my tuition whether you like it or not because I kept my end of the deal and you have to keep yours. I can just think back to all of the times that you helped to shape me into the person that I have become today. Hopefully I have turned out to be the honest, kind, and god-fearing person that you brought me up to be. I still remember that time when I was eight years old that you pretty much forced me into being an altar server at church. I had never wanted to be one because I didn’t want my friends to come to church and see me in that goofy white robe that I had to wear. After many hours of you yelling and explaining why it was important for me to be an altar server, I finally caved in and went to server school. It was there that I learned that my religion should be taking a much larger role in my life than it had previously been. From then on, whenever I went to church, I actually paid attention to what was going on. In all fairness, however, I obviously did not live my life by the strict decree that the Catholic Church demanded of die-hard worshippers. I was only 8 years old then, I'm 18 now and I’m still not living that lifestyle, it just isn’t for me. I will say, however, that my religion has seriously affected the way that I live my life and make certain decisions. I also realize that religion isn’t even that big of a deal to you; well I know that now I guess. I had always tried to figure out why you where so adamant about going to church every Sunday, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. When you told me the story of how my grandfather fought for Irish independence in the IRA, everything started to come together. You told me that our religion was not just our religion, it was our family legacy. When the British controlled Northern Ireland and treated the Irish like dogs, the only people that came to our rescue was the Catholic Church. I have come to respect that fact greatly and live my life in a way that respects what the Catholic Church has done for us. Then you sent me to Ireland last year and I really got to see what it was like there after all of the terrible things that have happened. I have the pictures in my room of the cranes dotting the skyline of Belfast where they are rebuilding houses and other buildings. I don't want to drag this letter on too long or your probably wont even end up reading it so I will just tend it here. Thank you again for everything that you have done for me, you have done a great job raising me (or so people have been telling me), and no matter how hard you try to dismiss the fact, you’ll miss me next year.

Love,
Conor O’Neill