“You like mija. Go try them on, do they fit!!!!” “I got them at levis for only 30 dollars. Your dad can really find good stuff for cheap. Huh!” “yeah dad”.  It was just like any other day and I was in my after school program since my parents worked all day to support us. I would get home and often find new levis my dad had bought and added them to the pile of levis I already had. He who would always worry about the bills and how much he had in his bank account would always manage to buy his daughters an abundance of clothes.

I on the other hand would only wear the same two pairs of pants. I didn’t really appreciate what my dad gave me. I actually would reject them sometimes because of the style or the way the pants fit or just because I wasn’t in the mood to try on pants. I saw my life as easy, always having food on the table and clothes in my drawers. My ignorance blinded me from my father´s hardships.

 It didn’t occur to me then but the levis I would constantly not wear that were piling up in my closet were my dad’s way of giving us wealth. The expensive levis that he found for cheap grew our class more than any amount of money could. My father felt ecstatic seeing me wear my levis. He would ask me “what did your friends say about your new pants” and I would answer “yes dad they liked them”. In reality I got no attention from my pants or any of my clothes. I recently learned that levis cost way more than what my dad bought them for. 

My way of protesting was not accepting the pants most of the time or sticking to the same pairs in rotation and neglecting the others. Now my father buys me less levis because of all my protesting. I wish that I would have just accepted his love through the pants. My father doesn’t show his emotions often so when I rejected the levis I believe he felt like I was rejecting his love too. He would have a change of character everytime I turned him down.

This deeply impacted me because of the importance of understanding people’s hardships and affections. After not accepting the levis for the longest I became more accepting of what my father gave me. Even today you will see me wearing my levis with pride that reflects my dad’s love and my personal growth of understanding people and their actions. My loving levis from my loving father.