An open letter to Sabrina

Dear Sabrina,

Thank you, thank you for being you, thank you for sharing your journey with us, thank you for being vulnerable, thank you for posting. You pushed me in a way in a way I didn’t expect to happen . You made me go out my comfort zone and do something I never imagined. Over a year ago, you shared the meaning of having a relationship, mending relationships and cherishing your relationship with your parents. You shared your story and your journey; you told your followers to make sure they have a relationship with their parents. “We as children don’t really know the struggle they went through to raise us.” You are right and this hit home.

I listened to your audio message in tears, it made me think about myself and my relationship with my dad. We don’t have a relationship; I have not seen him since I was a little girl. I am grown grown now so imagine! We talk everyone in a blue moon via text but that is it and that is something that started in the last few years. I sat with this and have been thinking about it long and hard. I have a trip planned to go to Atlanta where he lives and was debating for a second if I should reach out and let him know. I mentioned it to my husband, and he was 100% supportive, he thought I should and encouraged me to do so. I still wasn’t “sold” on the idea because of so many past disappointments growing up.

Fast forward to the morning I heard your voice notes you shared with the world—you encouraged me more than you know that day to reach out to my dad and tell him I’ll be in town. I did just that! I sent him a text message and said, “Hi! I’ll be in Atlanta on these dates would love to see you. Let’s do lunch.” He responds shortly after and says he would love to and that’s also his birthday. I was literally in shock like oh wow! He wants to see me as well. Then a few minutes later I thought about the past when he didn’t show up and decided not to get my hopes up.

I told my husband I need to plan things to do just in case he leaves me hangin’ and he told me he doesn’t think that will happen this time. He believes he will be a man of his word and reach out to me so we can do lunch or something when in Atlanta. So, I just let it be and planned my trip as normal.

Now it’s the day of the trip and we’re at the airport, my phone rings and it’s my dad calling to see what time my flight is and what time I arrive. I give him the details and he ask that I let him know when I land and such, so I agree and do just that. The next day I am planning my day out and he texts me asking my plans for the day and wanted to know if I wanted to go to lunch!! I was SHOCKED and said yes that would be great. So, I started getting ready, he said he would be at my hotel at 1PM. It was about 12:45PM and I get a text from him, he’s in traffic and will be about 20 minutes late. Girllll, you know when I saw a text coming in while I was getting ready my heart almost skipped a beat, I thought he was about to cancel on me, but he didn’t!

Then he arrives, of course I’m still getting ready, so I told him I’ll be down in a few minutes. I get downstairs and he’s outside waiting for me and greets me with flowers like a princess! I was like aww for me! Girl, I was shocked again! What a nice gesture, I didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t this. He opened my door and I get in the car. We chatted a bit and decided we would go to Atlantic Station for lunch. If you know Atlanta, you know Atlantic Station, there’s restaurants, an outdoor area to relax, shops, movies and such. It’s cute. We select a restaurant to eat and order our food and eat. We laughed, talked, shared food and had a grand time. I noticed that he eats slow and so do I so I mentioned it like you eat slow huh, he was like yeah I do. I was okay, I guess I get that from you haha!

After lunch, we walked around for a little while and then we headed back to drop me off at the hotel as I had plans to meet a curlfriend. Before I left, he asked if we could take photos, I agreed, and the valet guy took pictures of us. They came out cute girl!! What a cute lunch date we had! Wow! I left feeling good, feeling happy, feeling relieved, feeling all the things. I am so happy I got a chance to reconnect with my dad. He is a nice guy.

Sabrina, thank you for your Instagram stories, thank you for being you, thank you for calling us out, thank you for being open and honest with your community. You are a gem and I love every bit of it. Thank you for pushing me without even knowing. I am happy.

xoxo

Charrisse