Just to Make our Fathers Proud

     In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner Amir spent his entire childhood longing for his father's love and approval. Amir wanted to make his father proud but he was different than his father's "ideal son". Amir didn't play or even like to watch soccer, he wasn't an outdoorsman and didn't have many manly qualities. He liked to sit and read, he was a fairly quiet child; Amir was not like his father and felt that this would keep him from getting his father's approval. That is, until the day that Amir won the competition with his kite. This young boy had beat out over fifty people and finally felt that his father was proud. In this moment, Amir felt like he had finally done what he had by trying to do all his life; to a certain extent, I can understand what Amir was feeling at this time.
     My dad was the biggest and the best in high school and even college when it came to sports. He went to Hillsdale on a track scholarship, then transferred to football. Not to mention he always kept good grades. Although he's never said it, I feel like he always wanted a boy. A child he could mentor and push in sports; in the very least, he probably could have settled for having an athletic girl. Instead, he was given two slightly awkward, not coordinated girls, granted both my sister and I have always excelled in school. Dad never got the chance to coach us; he tried when my sister played basketball, but it ended badly. I always wanted to make him proud and I know I did, but never with sports and that's where I really longed for him to be astonished about just how good I was. 
     Then I became involved in trap shooting, much thanks to his encouragement. My first year I was beyond awful; I couldn't hit anything. However, I went back the next year and kept shooting. I think it's because trap was a male dominated sport that I, as an eleven year old girl, could still do. Through trap I could, in a sense, give my father a son; I could make him proud of me. That first year I saw glimmers of my father's approval, but I was too hard on myself about how awful I was and that made him angry. As I kept shooting over the years, though, I got much better, I became so proud of myself and my father became so proud of me. I basked in this approval. I've grown to love trap shooting but I know that I only really started it to make my father proud, just like Amir fighting to win that kite competition to win his father's approval.