Love of Stories and Conversations
I used to love bedtime when I was little. It wasn’t because I loved sleeping or was tired, but it was because every night before bed, my dad would tell us stories from his childhood. After brushing our teeth, my brother and I would scamper to his room. I remember how eager and impatient I was every night waiting for my dad to join us. We would all lay down on my brother’s bed with the lights turned off and stare at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling while my dad brought us on a trip into his childhood years through his stories. His storytelling was so vivid and intriguing that I hated when his story ended and I had to go to sleep.
Eventually, storytime before bed ended. I don’t remember the exact cause; It might’ve been because my dad didn’t have any more exciting, action packed stories for us or maybe because my brother no longer thought it was cool to spend his nights with his sister and his dad. Whatever the reason was, I was disappointed when bedtimes stories stopped happening.
Although bedtime stories came to an end, my dad has continued to tell me about his life when he was younger every now and then. My dad loves telling stories, maybe even more than I love listening to them, so it works out perfectly. On the car ride to school in the mornings, we usually listen to the news on the radio and talk about the current events. Almost every week, something about the topic of our conversation reminds him of an event in his life that he then tells me about. I thought my dad had run out of stories to tell, but I realized how much of his life I still don’t know about. As my sister pointed out to me, my parents have been a part of my life since the day I was born while I've only been in their lives for 17 years. It’s kind of weird to think about.
Last night, I interviewed my dad for my research essay for nonfiction writing. I only had a couple of questions prepared that I wanted to ask him, but it ended up being a 2-hour conversation. Even though I think I know my dad well, I realized that I’ll never know everything about him. He’s has so many interesting life experiences that there will never be enough time to share them all.
One of my favorite ways to spend my time is just talking with my parents. I’m often pushing off homework, but I think it’s time well spent. There’s so many random lessons I learn from our conversations and the stories they tell me that range from what to do when you encounter a wolf in the wild by yourself to how to stay in contact with friends living in a different part of the world. I’ve learned to value the time I spend with them as I know it’s limited.
This blog post is really sweet. The strength of your relationship your parents is awesome. Family time is truly wonderful and worth every second, even if it means not doing your homework.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my parents have never read me stories, I still enjoy listening to audiobooks. One of my favorite things to do is to spend a day relaxing and listening to a book.
I relate to this blog post so much. My parents would read my sisters and I a bedtime story every night before bed. We would quickly get ready for bed and pick out a book from our massive bookshelf and huddle around my parents while they would read us a story. We would never miss a night. But then we started getting older, and staying up late more often and soon bedtime stories faded away. Now though, the storytime now happens at the dinner table. Dinner time is the only time where we all are together at the same time and so my parents take that opportunity to tell us stories or just talk about random things.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a touching post. You really show off your amazing connection with your dad. I have the same relationship with my mom. It's the greatest to be able to spill thoughts and memories with our parents. You don't have to hold back and time always flies when you're with them. There's nothing like it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post. I, too, love hearing stories about other people and their lives, and I can relate to your feelings of knowing a lot and not much about your parents. Personally, I don't think many astounding things happen to me everyday, but I know (or at least hope) that one day my stories will be interesting to young people. Who knows, right? Anyway, great post.
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ReplyDeleteIt's really weird to think of my parents' lives before I was born. To see my mom as a girl like me or my dad as a boy is really bizarre, but it's also interesting because it makes me wonder what they were like when they were younger. Not that they've lost their character, but becoming parents has definitely probably affected them significantly. I totally relate to your love of listening to stories by parents. My dad is also a story-telling addict and he always has a story to tell me in the car or at dinner. I've realized I haven't heard my dad tell me a story in a while because I'm always in my room doing homework, but after reading your post, I realized that it's important to sometimes put other things aside and spend time with my parents.
ReplyDeleteThis post was so intriguing to read in that I relate as I used to also love bedtime stories my dad would tell. Often, his stories were about his life when he was a kid, involving his love for math or his friends or even his legendary basketball games. But one thing my dad sometimes did which was unique is that sometimes he wouldn't tell us a real story, he would make up characters whose names rhymed, like he was Dr. Seuss. But my siblings and I always loved the stories, whether they were about talking buses from the moon or about my dad himself.
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