A letter to my step father

Dear Ken,

I had the urge to write to you, to finally end the hold you have on my soul. You caused me a lot of pain, back in the day, and its long past time for me to deal with it. In some ways, you had the odds stacked against you from the day you came into our lives. You were being asked to replace my fallen father, and instead of a couple of normal kids, you were saddled with one mentally wounded boy, and me - a broken human being stuck between genders.

But unfortunately, you didn’t rise to the challenge you were given. You slipped into alcohol abuse, and soon allowed drinking to destroy all of our lives. And then there was the physical and mental abuse you inflicted on us. You caused a lot of damage to me, and some of those scars remain with me to this day. I only hope by the cold light of day you realize how wrong your treatment of us was.

But that’s enough condemnation. Today isnt about opening old wounds, but to heal them, once and for all. And the only way I know how to do that is to forgive you, and ask for your forgiveness. I have allowed resentment to fester too long, and I am quite sure I was far from a perfect child for you in any case.

So I ask for your forgiveness, and I give you mine in exchange. I’m going to do my best to leave what happened in the past, where it belongs, and not let it define me any longer.

So this is me, letting you go now. Good luck in wherever your life takes you from here.