By May B, TIWP Student

Being a girl without a father means seeing one present from your mom on your birthday.

Being a girl without a father makes you wonder if you’ll grow up to be the woman that social media labels “a whore with daddy issues.”

Being a girl without a father means never having someone asking you how your day was.

Being a girl without a father means never having to fill out the “guardian #2” box on the Google form or questionnaire. 

Being a girl without a father means never celebrating Father’s Day. I mean, why should you? He’s not worth the effort. 

Being a girl without a father means no one will hear you when you tell him to stop being late to everything.

Being a girl without a father means coming home angry because you know he’ll be there, sitting in the exact same spot he was this morning when you left the house for school. 

Being a girl without a father means when you ring the doorbell once, he’ll open the door and you’ll avoid eye contact with him as you walk to your room. 

Being a girl without a father means your mother has to clean up after his mess. He can go right to sleep after punching you in the nose, while your mother drives you to the hospital at 1 am. 

Being a girl without a father means yelling “fuck you” to a person who doesn’t understand you. But it’s fine, right? Since you’ll never understand him either. 

Being a girl without a father means him telling you it’ll take a hundred hours at the gym to burn off the fish tacos you ordered. He’ll know the way that comment burned into your brain like lasers and left a permanent wound that made you harbor a type of resentment you’d never felt for anyone before.