I am 21 years old and an AFC. Just the other day my father and I began talking out of the blue. Believe it or not, having a real conversation with my father is extremely rare and usually very dull and pointless, but not this time. My father came to me with a six pack of miller light and a purpose.

He began with asking how I am doing. I said I was fine, but then he asked again but with a tone that begged for more details. I got the hint and I told him about my week and how it was boring as usual, work, eat, sleep, etc etc... He then asked me if I had a girlfriend. This absolutely shocked me. As a 21 year old young man, this was the first time my father had ever brought up relationships. He asked me if I ever had sex and if it was good and if I currently have a girlfriend etc....needless to say, this was extremely awkward. The conversation fumbled horribly until we went into a dead silence for about 10 minutes. It was horribly awkward and sad at best. I left feeling embarrassed (when I really didnt have a reason to) and he just kind of sat there like he wished he never asked me about my sex life.

Guys, what I am getting at is, this is the first fucking time EVER that I had a sex talk (a horrible at best) with my parents. It dawned on me that had I actually had a social interaction with my father and we built rapport to a point where talking about sex wouldn't be so awkward, maybe I wouldn't be such a social outcast. My father is the only male role model that I got to be around for 21 years and hes literally the only personality that I know how to relate with. For 21 years, my father has been my provider and more importantly my original foundation as a young man going out into this world. I love my father, but I have absolutely not a fucking clue who he is. He was an extremely generous man, nice, hard working, but completely unsocial. I never hung out with him as a little boy, I instead played with my friends dads on the baseball field. He just was never a presence in my life at all. I never saw him with friends from work or with the neighbors all my life. I grew up thinking that being alone and not talking to anyone was normal. Now that I am in college, I realize that this is actually horribly wrong. Humans are meant to interact, and my dad never interacted with me or anyone around him. Had I seen my father being social and hanging around with friends and romancing my mom more often, and just showing some fucking life every once in a while, I would have been a completely different person. Instead, I have to pick up his slack and take the road that he did not travel and learn to become social the hard way. Guys, parents have a HUGE impact in your lives.

Fellow Sedditors, as you can see, I have a lot of ground to make up. One day, you will have a son (or a daughter) and you will be responsible for preparing them for being independent. I now realize that it is a duty for every parent to show their children how to interact with other human beings. The best way to be able to do that is to have the ability to interact with other human beings yourself. I love my father, but he left me with an extremely heavy burden and its all up to me to break the cycle and choose to be happy and social. I make no excuses for my current social situation, but it would have been a hell of a lot better if I had a good example to start off with. What I am saying is don't do what my dad did. Build a healthy social environment for your children. It could be the most important thing you do for them.

tl;dr TALK TO YOUR FUCKING KIDS (WHEN YOU HAVE THEM).