The Serenity Prayer (Essay)

My parents’ divorce ruined my relationship with my dad and I have grown so much because of it. I was in seventh grade when it started; my brother was sent to his biological mother’s house and my mom asked my dad for a divorce. As a thirteen year old girl, I never expected such a traumatic event to take place. My mom changed, my dad changed and everything seemed to be falling apart and I had no way of stopping it. I did not know what to do or what was going to happen and I was scared of the outcome.
My dad did everything in his power to make the divorce terrible. I was fourteen when he decided that taking sides with him or my mom was a necessity. In order to win me over, he lied by telling me that my mom thought I was a mistake when she had me. I was close with my mom and I questioned her about what he had told me. She confirmed what I had thought and said my dad was wrong. My dad did not like how close my mom and I were and he wanted more time with me. A few months later, it was Christmas and my mom and I decided to spend the morning at home then leave for my grandparent’s house in Chico. Of course, my dad hated the idea because he was not going to have the whole day with me and he wanted to make that very clear. He locked himself in the bedroom for an hour and when he came out he was wrathful. He started yelling at my mom and threw my favorite mug across the room and into the wall. My dad then took my mom’s favorite figurine and went to the backyard to shatter it into many pieces on the cement. We had enough of his rampage and left for the police station to file a report on my own dad. He made me angry and I pitied myself for having a father who made everyday a struggle. I felt like no one understood me.
It took over three years for the divorce to be finalized. My dad went from living with us to living in his truck to living in a townhouse then finally living at his parents’ second house in Norwalk, CA. He barely called and if I was lucky I got one visit every year. I blamed it on the drugs, since the beginning of the divorce they were always his way of escaping reality, but instead they were the reason my relationship with him was destroyed. He tried really hard to make things right with me while I was in high school. Even though he would give me jewelry or he would promise to visit me, he always had a way of getting my hopes up then crushing them for the whole world to see. It is really sad to see a broken relationship between a dad and his daughter, but it was even worse being the daughter with the broken dad.
Five years has come and gone since the beginning of my parents’ divorce and I have realized the significance of it all. Thanks to all the adversities I had to overcome, I have found a love of a heavenly Father, I learned from my dad’s mistakes and I learned how to forgive him for all his wrongdoings. I may not have the greatest dad, but I have accepted him and I gave him the opportunity to have a second chance whenever he makes a mistake. God has always granted me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.