I just had a bad dream where my dad was arguing with me and my 2 other brothers in the car. I can’t remember what he was yelling at us about but he started driving aggressively. To be honest, nothing was out of the ordinary in the dream as all of this was happening, that’s how my dad is in real life too. Anyway, we eventually reached one of those loops that are raised high, in the dream it was extra high, like a good 300 feet. As he’s yelling at us, he starts driving off the road and we’re suddenly in free-fall. The car starts tilting forward and we’re just waiting and expecting the worst. 6 seconds later that’s when we crash and I that’s when I finally awoke.
It was a terrible dream but a part of me is kind of glad I had it because I’ve been noticing myself getting more and more angry with my dad. I woke up feeling relieved. I no longer live with my dad but he still tries to control every aspect of my life. I’m 27 years old and live with my aunt and uncle. He’s been complaining about how he now has an empty phone line for a phone contract he signed up for when he got me a new phone. I lost that phone back when I was still doing stupid things while drinking in public. I’m 88 days sober now and haven’t lived with him in over 2.5 years. That phone was the last thing he could use against me should I ever disobey him. He’s known for doing this kind of thing whenever he doesn’t get it his way. If I choose to make a career move or not make a career move that he doesn’t approve of, he’ll get angry and then pull the “who pays for this/that card?”.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a career choice, it can be any decision I make, and if he doesn’t approve of it, he’ll always pull that card.
I ended up buying my own phone with my own monthly payment plan. Dad only ever calls or wants to hang out whenever he wants to change some part of my plans just like yesterday where he called out of the blue and brought up the phone thing again. And while I do agree that I should take advantage of saving an extra $55 a month by simply allowing him to pay for my phone service, I hate how immediately after he starts trying to tell me what to do with every other aspect of my life.
He started telling me how I should get a car as soon as possible even though my electric scooter is doing just fine. Then I told him how I declined a promotion at the lame movie theater where I work at. He said both of these decisions were stupid and that I should reconsider. Here’s the thing, I have reconsidered, and I still choose to do it my way.
I don’t need a car right now, I get around town just fine on my scooter and I just found a handful of jobs nearby that pay $3-7 more than my current one. I didn’t tell dad about these jobs because it’s not his decision to make for me. I’m the one who’s gonna be working so why should he decide? The pay is important to me but only to a certain degree because I’m not out there trying to impress anyone, I live an extremely simple lifestyle. I don’t need my own apartment or my own house, I don’t need a car, I don’t need a high paying job. As a matter of fact, I prefer working part-time. I can afford to do this because I live with others and I quite frankly don’t mind living with others. I’ve lived in a small 5 x 11 jail cell where people would scream at night and my cellmate would take a dump right there, anything is an upgrade from that and I’ve grown quite immune to free man worries.
He may think I’m a loser because I ride my scooter instead of a car but I’m saving tons of money by not using a car. Scooter parts rarely cost more than $100 unless you’re replacing the control board or main battery. But even in those cases, I’d spend around $300 for that which only happens about every 8-12 months.
I don’t spend money on gas, auto insurance, registration, etc. I don’t need a license or permit to ride this thing as long as it doesn’t exceed 20mph and it doesn’t so I’m safe.
He may still be living in the 80’s but nowadays, with all the new technology and services that are available, there are ways to get by and even thrive without doing things the old way.
If I need groceries, I simply get them delivered in 1-2 hours with my phone. If I need a ride to some far place, I get an Uber or Lyft. I rarely leave my town so it’s not like I spend a lot of money on Uber or Lyft.
Anyway, I’ll do this one thing with the phone but I’m only doing it for 18 months until his contract ends because I do feel kinda shitty about him having to pay for an unused phone line that I was originally using. The other phone lines are still being used by my brothers. It’ll save me a good $990, but my goal is still to cut that last string once those 18 months are up. I’m sickened tired of being his puppet.