The screeching noise of the buzzer rings through my ears as my team just suffered another devastating loss. It was something about this one game that made my dad really angry. My dad is always such a happy and uplifting person, so his reaction really shocked me. He started yelling at me as soon as we got into the car.

“I've never seen you play like that before, it was like you didn't even try.”

“I did try, just because I wasn't perfect doesn't mean I didn't try.” I argued.
“Yeah, whatever. I've seen you do better.” He then replied.
“You say that after every game dad.” I told him.
“Because it’s true, I know what you’re capable of.” He answered.
Soon, I couldn't even hear the radio because of my dad and my bickering filling the car. I felt like crying because my dad has never yelled at me like that. We got home, and both went to our rooms and slammed our doors, which shook the pictures on the walls. The next day we wouldn't even speak to each other, and it started bothering me so much that I couldn't concentrate. All I could think about was us screaming at each other the whole ride home. When I wake up in the morning and he leaves for work, he doesn't even say goodbye. Then, when he got home at the end of the day, he didn't even look at me. It made me so upset that he got so fired up about a game.

As I started thinking, I finally realized why he would get so mad. He used to play basketball when he was in school, so he wants me to have as many opportunities as I can while I am young. He expects so much from me sometimes, that I lose my train of thought, because all I hear is his voice in my head whenever I do something wrong in a game.
Finally, after a week, we started talking to each other again and we didn't bring it up again. I don’t know what happened, other than that we both said “I’m sorry.” It was almost like nothing ever happened. We agreed that something like this wouldn't ever happen again, but little did we know that another thing was coming.
The next game, I swore at the beginning that it would be better, but it wasn’t. The whole week repeated itself and I couldn’t figure out why he would get so angry again. The only thing that is different this week is that we don’t argue, but we don’t talk either. I always know when he is mad at me because he gives me this look where his lips are slightly curved into a frown and his eyebrows come together forming little wrinkles on his forehead.  We didn't talk again and it got to the point where every week he was mad at me after games, no matter how well I played. I felt like I couldn't impress him or that I wasn't good enough, because all he tells me is that I can be better, and that I should be better.  

Before my next game, as I was getting ready, I told my dad that I didn't want him to come. I didn't want him to come, because I was tired of getting criticized for every wrong thing I did, even if he was only trying to help. I played better than I ever have during the game, and I know exactly why. I wasn't busy of thinking about everything I do, I just did it because I knew that I wouldn't have anyone tell me it was wrong. Once I got home I told my dad how the game went. No matter how mad he was at me before the game, I could tell he was extremely proud of me. His face softened and for the first time in a long time, and anger wasn't spread across his face. After telling him about the game, and him telling me how proud he was of me, we were closer than ever.

He eventually started coming to my games again, which I was hesitant to at first, but was ready. During the game I just blocked him out, which was a lot easier than previous times. I guess he learned his lesson that if he yelled at me, that I wouldn't put up with it. After the game, he gave me the biggest hug and told me he couldn't be happier over the game I had just played. He told me how much he loved me, and that he was proud that I played and didn't give up over him yelling at me. I was so frustrated with him during the time we were arguing, that I told him I didn't want to play basketball anymore because of him. He took that to heart I guess, because he started to give me compliments instead of telling me things I did wrong. I didn't mean to hurt his feelings, but I’m glad I told him this because it made us so much closer.