Lessons Learned From My Alcoholic Father
Temporary heartache can teach us a lot about being better people
It seems as though we learn our most valuable life lessons through our hardships and traumas. While these blips of time leave us with permanent scars, we often emerge with a more enlightened perspective of life.
I didn’t know my dad had a drinking problem until I was 15. Although I don’t ever remember a night where my dad didn’t have a beer or two, it didn’t progress to be problematic until my sophomore year of high school. What was once a few Coors Lights to end the day became more than a couple of glasses of Jack Daniel’s on the rocks. He knocked them back until he reached an angry level of drunk that would put him to bed.
I avoided him at all costs and even managed not to exchange a single word with him for three months. As soon as I heard his truck pull into the driveway around 6:00pm, I would retreat to my room for the night. But our house was very small, so I couldn’t fully escape the drunken rants and rage that would undoubtedly ensue as he made his way through a few glasses of whiskey. I’m still haunted by the series of sounds that would play out every evening; they signaled that the normalcy of my day was over.
