Molding a life

     He looked up at you with a smile on his infant face, and your heart melted. You had such dreams for him, unlike any other dreams. Would he grow to be a football star? Maybe a doctor? Would he dedicate his life to helping others? You taught him to play catch and took him fishing watching his expressions as he tried to reel in a big one on a mickey mouse rod. He was your life when he was young. He cut the grass with a toy mower as you followed behind. He hammered plastic nails as you built him a tree house. He was with you every morning as you shaved, and he pretended to……

     You taught him to drive and worried yourself sick every time he left the driveway in his first car, wishing he was younger again. He believed in you and copied your ways. Some good, others you hoped he wouldn't. There were times he took a sip of your beer and made faces asking why I drank something that tasted so bad? You told him he would grow to like it. A seed you planted wishing you could dig it back up.

     He got older as did you and friends took your place. He drank and did other things just like you did. He saw you as an example and not the worried father who looked into his infant face wondering what he would become? He's all grown up now and living a life you helped mold. You sit for hours looking at pictures of him, so innocent and young and you pray he has learned something from your mistakes, but the reality is he did learn but chose to be like you until the day he realizes you were far from being the perfect father, but you were there……

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