teary eyes

i noticed that my dad became slightly teary when he heard the news that i'm going to study abroad. his reasoning was that as i got older, i will be come more and more picky, and it will be hard for me to get married. somehow i was seeing through it that he, too, was sad, but he could not say so out loud.

i was reminded of a realization i made recently that growing up, i have always been... misheard and misunderstood, even by my parents. maybe it also made me feel unloved, but then i also questioned myself: do understanding and love really have to go along? going back to my dad, probably he didn't understand me because of our generation gap, but he cared enough that my leaving made him teary. wasn't it enough?