There Goes My Life
Kenny Chesney
"Dad, I told you not to cry. I'll visit often. I promise."
The tears began falling from his eyes and fell to the dusty road. The dusty road where he kissed her scraped knees when she fell off her bike. The dusty road where she ran to catch the bus that first day of kindergarten. The dusty road that took her home after her first date and the same dusty road that was about to take his baby girl away, away from him.
"Come here," he says. He wrapped his arms around her and refused to let go. She too held tight and took in everything about her father. The smell of hard work, the t-shirt she had gotten him last father’s day, the way he laughed, and the smile that said everything without even saying a word.
He knew that saying goodbye would have to come someday, but holding his 7lb. blonde, blue-eyed baby 18 years ago, he never knew it would come this fast. It was only 18 years before that life was perfect. He was the all-star football player with big plans to head to the super bowl one day. He was promised a full-ride to play college football at WSU. His life was full of big dreams and he was expected to accomplish them all.
Life was never the same after he received that phone call that rainy day in October. "Hello," he said. It was silent for a second until she got the courage to answer back. "Hi, um, can we meet somewhere, we need to talk." The worry of the word 'goodbye' made his callused, tough hands tremble.
She met him under her porch, hiding from the rain.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" He dreadfully spoke aloud.
Tears began flowing down her cheeks and in soft spoken words she told him that he was going to be a dad.
They stood in silence for a long minute, until he turned around with no words of comfort or shame, it was just a dream he told himself. He loved her but he also loved the life he had.
Mistake was the only thing he ever thought about for months. Then it all changed when the phone rang nine months later. He raced to the hospital. He held the 7lb. blonde hair, blue-eyed baby for the first time. With one look, he knew she was not a mistake.
Time slipped by unknowingly, and here he stood hugging his baby girl goodbye.
He told her how much he loved her. And she was gone.
He held his wife's hand as they watched her drive down that dusty road.
