Alex Warren

The one thing I wish is I could call my dad and just ask for advice.

About marriage, about fatherhood, about just things you go through.

That's the thing I take for granted, just being able to call them.

I called every day to hear that voicemail, every day until one day someone picked up the phone.

Because my mom couldn't afford to keep paying the bill.

And so that's the one thing is like it's been so nice to be able to see those videos and humanize someone who I didn't know.

I often hear about my dad, and I've put him on this pedestal of just being this perfect guy, and I don't want him to be.

I want him to have mistakes.

I want him to have flaws because I have flaws, and I want to see that in my dad.

And so my dad's best friend –

comes around all the time he's in my life so much he's like an uncle to me and he brought these letters because back then they didn't have phones and my dad used to they used to write each other letters and it's his bestest friend and he gets choked up talking about him all the time and he showed me these letters and i write just like my dad i say psyched for no reason i don't know why i say it i'm like oh i'm psyched that's sick and everyone's like what are you talking about

And he wrote it in every letter.

Someone I didn't know.

Like, think about that.

I did not know my dad.

I was nine years old.

I have memories of him the same way I have memories about my doctor, you know, and that's hard.

And there's so much of him in me.

And that's the coolest part is being able to every day learn something new about him.

And I say this, and I don't know where I heard it, and I never came up with this, but people die twice.