ACK ACK ACK

It sure takes a lot of social awareness to talk to my dad. Last night I finally realized that all my attempts to communicate with him were useless. Instead, what he needed was an audience. He wanted to be heard, to be a dad. He had pent up emotions he needed to release. He didn’t want to understand me, he has his own issues to work out. I disagreed, but I listened.

Ironically, all the “useless” social skills I learned the past three years have been essential to opening up communication between us.

It was just him talking and me nodding, but I made it obvious that I was listening. It’s like I kept sending him ACKs, to keep the packets flowing.