Dear Jennifer,
I’m sorry I haven’t always been there for you and I’ve surly let you down at times. I’ve said many horrible things to a lot of people, but the few times I did to you, I truly do regret it. I think about it all the time. It is shocking how fast time goes by. It seems like yesterday we were riding on a motorcycle together and I had put it in my mind to explain to you the difference between 1, 2, and 3 versus first, second and third. Now you’re an adult and speak English better than I do.
Google didn’t do a very good job at preserving the quality of these old photos, but it recognized your face perfectly, no matter your age. This was right after I married your mom. On the day we met, you asked her, “Mom, why did you choose a guy like this?”
I’m not going to tell you about this letter. I’d rather you found it on the blockchain by yourself in the future or advanced AI recommends it to you. I think it will be more meaningful that way. Steemit may not be the #1 social media blockchain in the future, but I believe it will still exist, merge, or be absorbed by whatever better comes along.
I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you. Sharring a middle and last name with you is truly an honor. I talk about you and use you as an example all the time. When girls way to young hit on me on Facebook, I’ll tell them that I have a daughter their age or when girls give me too much attitude, I tell them the same and to not talk to me that way. Having been a teacher, young girls would use the excuse, I’m only 14, 15, or whatever age, and I’d dismiss their poor age excuse and tell them how you could kill a man with your bare hands. You had a great leg kick and the rear naked choke down when you were just eight. I didn’t know your brother would come along, so I guess I raised you like a son.
Do you remember this day? It was on my 30th birthday. I can honestly tell you that I had way more fun in my 30s than I did in my 20s, so when this birthday comes for you, don’t feel old.
This was in Korea on January 1st 2011. You, your mom, and your brother had never felt -20 degree weather before. When we left the airport to go outside, I asked the three of you if you were ready for it. I’ll never forget the look on all three of your faces when you all stepped outside.
Here’s you pretending to drink red wine.
This is the first fish you caught at Horse Thief Lake in South Dakota.
Here you’re trying to push over Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
On January 17th 2010, you held your brother for the first time. I’m so glad he has a big sister like you.
Remember when the iPad 2 came out and we all kept playing Angry Birds? Here is the first picture I ever took with that or any Apple device.
Here’s that crappy apartment we stayed at in Bangkok. Do you remember these dogs? Chocker and Tone? I remember playing Mario Galaxy on the Nintendo Wii and the day you shot me in the tooth with that BB gun. I know you remember that!
I don’t remember what we were arguing about in this picture. Maybe George Washington thought it was funny. Speaking of George Washington, here’s a little bit of our family history:
Your brother’s name, Daniel Parke Custis, is a part of American history. He was the richest dude in the American colonies. When he died, George Washington married his widow, Martha. He used her wealth to climb the social latter, become a General, and the first American president.
Martha had a granddaughter named Mary. She married Robert E. Lee. That’s where the Lee comes from in our middle names. He hated slavery, but couldn’t turn his sword on his fellow Virginians, so he turned down the command of the Union Army and joined the Confederacy. One Union general was so mad that his son died in the Civil War, so he stole his house, The Custis Lee Mansion, and turned it into a cemetery. That cemetery is known today as Arlington National Cemetery.
That name, Daniel Parke Custis has been a tradition in our family. Here is the grave of my Granddad and the reason I named your brother that. He was the greatest man I ever met. He was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War and respected by anyone who ever knew him. He taught me how to fly airplanes when I was just two years old. I flew over 2,000 hours with him. I loved his war stories. They would start like this: “What I’m about to tell you is probably still classified as top secret...”
I’m sorry things didn’t work out for your mom and I, but like you said before, “You know how she is.”
If this letter goes as planned you will see it far into the future and not in 2019. I doubt you remember this, but you really liked the Simpsons when you were little. I told you that it may be funny to you then, but wait and watch it when your 30+. So, was I right?
To be honest this letter is a bit pointless, I know you know that I’m proud of you and love you, I just thought it would be nice to put it on this blockchain, which I believe will be around for as long as there are computers. Even if humanity and our technology are obliterated, the universe is most likely blockchain like, so everything that ever happens is remembered by the mind of the matrix of God. I love you and always will.
Dad