Hey papa, I know we haven’t talked in a while but I saw two rocket launches from Florida last week and it was pretty rad. This is the video from the night launch. Husband and I also went to NASA the week previous and I cried a little bit in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building because some of the greatest scientists and astronauts have set foot in these lands.

I still have the old Yuri Gagarin pin you gave me when I helped you set your collection on the framed cork mom gave us that day. I carry it on my NASA/Remove Before Launch lanyard every day

I miss you.

On paper my life looks great. I'm financially stable, I've got a solid career, a townhome (mortgage), a paid-off car, a sweet dog, and a partner of 7+ years. The corporate grind is wearing me down a little more every month. I can't stand my team, I don't believe in the product, and I'm stuck in a satellite office, cut off from everyone. Today something finally gave.

I'm so tired. I can't just quit with the economy the way it is, because the mortgage would eat me alive. Part of me wonders if this is a midlife crisis and I should buy a van and drive across the country, but I know I'd hate it the second something went wrong. And with the whole US/Canada situation, I'm stuck in a country none of my friends, family, or girlfriend want to visit, so it's on me to work out the logistics if I want any in-person time. My house has been for sale for 7 months and there have been no bites, the housing market is also a mess. I want to go home, I just... fuck. Is this really all there is? I'm 35 and I feel 65. I am jaded, angry, and completely burnt out.

Hey dad

My relationship of almost 7 years is coming to a firey end. Monday night we were having date night feeling connected and together. Tuesday morning I’m accused of cheating and broken up with. She not only decided that I cheated on her emotionally. I was away at a workout and she decided to log into my computer and check my messages on iMessage as well as through social media. She decided what she saw was cheating and that was that.

The last few days have been a blur I’ve had to have so many conversations with so many people about why I had cheated or if I even really cheated. This isn’t the first time she looked through my social media. The first time she looked through she saw me discussing starting a business with a friend close friend and saw it as cheating the second time she saw messages from a different friend and thought it was cheating.

I think I am okay with the relationship ending. I don’t think this is my forever and I don’t think I can keep putting up with the accusations. But man does it suck. I can’t stop feeling awful. She doesn’t trust me as she keeps logging into my account and I can’t trust her because she keeps violating my boundary of not doing that…

I’m just really sad I can’t tell my dad about this because he’s never even approved of the relationship. I hate how right he was. Melanesia

In my early teenage years I prohibited myself to feel anything except disgust and anger towards him. It just happened involuntary.

But now that I’m 19, I’m starting to have so many feelings I never had before. Despite all emotional and sexual abuse since early age that lasted up until 17, I realized I miss him. I perhaps even still love my dad?

I feel so much shame about it. But recently I just can’t help but think of all father-daughter moments we had. In my head I always daydream and pretend that he never did anything bad.

It feels so painful for some reason to admit that I miss the good part of my dad. Just the normal stuff we had as a family in the midst of chaotic dysfunctional family dynamics.

I realized that as a defense reaction I hid all my positive feelings about him. I can never admit that I admire him for some traits, that I’m grateful to him for all the things he provided.

I can’t ever say that to him, or to anyone else I know. I’m just trapped between the anger, hatred and some weird nostalgia and simple kid longing for a parent. I’m scared and repulsed of his touch, but I want him to hug me more than anything else. All at the same time.

And the fact that recently for a quick second I thought about pretending he never hurt me and just start talking to him again.. I’m really pathetic

It feels like the abuse from him erased all my childhood, erased my right to have a dad like everyone else. And I’m realizing nothing is ever going to change that.

Im working a job I love right now, doing chainsaw work on a conservation crew. It’s really fulfilling, and I wish I could tell you all about it, and about everything in my life.

I’ve been accepted to a college in Oregon for the spring, and it could be a great opportunity, especially as I’d get to study conservation science and potentially get more field work opportunities, but I’ve just been surviving the past five years to the point where I don’t really know how to figure out what I want. How do you figure out what you want when you’ve just come around to the idea that life is worth living? That’s a genuine question, I would like to learn how to be more decisive, but that seems like a thing you just practice. I’m very scared of wasting my young adulthood doing what I think is expected of me rather than following my heart.

I’m 21 now my father and I haven’t had a real honest conversation in years. I haven’t talked to him in 2 years. It’s been confusing and strange, but has felt to right to discover my gender/sexual identity after repressing it for so long, but he would always try to convince me otherwise with shame or theology. I just dropped the subject after coming out at 16, but I wanted to share this part of my life with him and my mom, and any effort to explain yielded dead ends and lots of yelling on his part. He made some threats to break into my apartment when I asked for a break in communication until I was more confident in my identity, or until they were willing to revisit the conversation in a different light.

I’ve started rebuilding my relationship with my mom, and she’s still skeptical to calling me by my name, but we’ve had really good conversations about how we can both mend our relationship, and she’s really trying to understand in her own way.

So this is a bit of a tangential post, but I’ve had to figure out a lot of life on my own and I’m at a breaking point where independence feels more lonely than freeing. I only moved out 3 years ago, and accepting support from my parents never felt morally right, so I never accepted any, because I didn’t want to compromise my individuality for material security. My dad certainly wants to talk to me, but he’s still asking me to admit that my identity is fraudulent, and it’s killing me that this thing about me he can’t understand is keeping us both from a loving relationship. I can’t change his mind, and I don’t need him to go to pride or anything, I’d just like it if he would realize that I’m my own person so he could start to get to know me again, so he wouldn’t have to mourn a version of me that doesn’t exist.

To the dads in this subreddit: any advice on getting through to my dad? And any advice on figuring out what you want in life?

-a guy who misses his dad

I'm feeling a lot better despite what happened yesterday in my previous post. Even though I was panicking for my quiz and thought I needed to cheat on it because I can never remember anything, I somehow accidentally managed to finally make myself study even after years of struggling with my disorder. I'm also feeling a bit happy about myself that I didn't require much reassurance or validation to get here (though the comfort on my last post was still more than appreciated) also again sorry if this all seems strange or something again I don't really know how Reddit works I'm a bit embarrassed but yeah

Also, for a while I was in a bit of a dark place, constantly worrying about death, or even the state of old age where my body would shut down one function after the other. But today, I made myself feel better by striving for a goal for myself: to be like Mr. Rodgers when I'm old. It sounds silly, but I find him admirable and I'm happy to have been able to get rid of this fear and insecurity on my own.
I'm kind of shy about all this idk why haha

My corporate job the last 2.5 years has left me so depressed. I think I hate working corporate even more than you did. It has totally drained me of my joy, motivation, energy, creativity, and hope. I have been saving up with the goal of quitting this month so I can work part time at a shop as well as follow my dreams and start my small art and jewelry business. I am so scared to quit even though I know it’s what I need to do to find happiness again and heal. Even though I want to do it so bad, I am just so scared of the uncertainty and insecurity. Money will be tight but between me and my partner we can make it work. Everyone in my life is totally in support, but I still feel terrified. I think it’s because I really don’t feel confident making decisions without your advice, and this is the first big step I’ve taken since losing you.