"Bub, you're my best friend."

"Bub, you're my best friend."

....................................................................

I distinctly remember my dad telling me this while we were driving in his black Ford truck and thinking to myself, "He's my dad...how can I be his best friend AND his son?"

I didn't know what to think and I'm not sure how I responded. I remember it having a profound impact on me, though.

Dad and I haven't always seen eye to eye. There have been times when I felt as if I fell short of who he had hoped for in a son.

I never enjoyed sports, especially basketball and football. I am terrible with cars. You don't want to see me try to work with tools. Meanwhile, my dad was a football star in high school, has worked on cars most of his life, and always had this gigantic tool cart doodad filled with gadgets I couldn't tell you how to use or even what to call them.

So when he threw around the phrase, "best friend," well, I was skeptical.

It took up until my daughter was born before I began to realize what he meant.

Now that she is two, going on three, I understand it even more. That little girl will be my best friend for life. She is the person I want to talk to and see every single day. I want to absorb all the time with her I can get (even when she is frustrating me). I want to love what she loves. I want to do what she does.

It's crazy.

I never thought I would understand what my dad meant when he told me I was his best friend. It was some strange and foreign concept which I never believed could take root in my soul the way it has. I think about it almost every day. "Man, she is my best friend. She's the best."

Now, I wonder, and recognize, how much of what I saw as glaring discrepancies between my dad and myself and how those things would always keep us from what I would call "friendship" was total garbage.

Made up by my own mind.

Interpreted through a superficial lens unable to stand outside my own perspective.

My dad played Pokemon with me.

He played soccer with me when I "played" soccer through most of elementary and middle school (always as a defender, minding my own business on the field until the last possible second).

He collected all kinds of trading cards with me. He played the same video games I did.

Maybe he would have done some or all of those whether I was engaged with them or not, but I know without any doubt he participated alongside me because I was engaging with them.

I have never been so invested in Frozen 2 or dance parties or swimming as I am with my daughter. In fact, some of those I have gone out of my way in my lifetime to make a big deal about how much I hate them! If she is into it, though, then so am I!

She is my best friend.

Dad, I finally get it.

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I am a freelance writer with a background in Ministry and experience everywhere from technical document writing to copy writing to creative writing. I have interests and knowledge in Ministry, Marketing, Parenting, Leadership, and Technology. If you are looking for someone to work with and like what you see, then email me at [email protected] or check out my portfolio at dylmill.contently.com.