Every monday, my mom or dad asks me if I'm going to that actor's meeting, and after I say yes, my mom would ask what we do there. My dad decides to be a little more of a broken record.

"How old are you?" he usually asks, and I'm in for an emotional flogging.

"35, you know this" I tell him, knowing that this is his way of torturing me.

Then he hits me with, "What are you gonna do with your life?" which descends into, "Go back to school, learn a trade, and keep this acting thing on the back burner or do it as a hobby. You wanna keep doing this until you're 40? Your mother and I won't be around for long you know." and so on. It's his favourite type of hell he drags me into. So, I'm sitting in my room, tears welling up over the tongue-lashing, and I contemplate quitting acting. It's crossed my mind dozens of times and will for the rest of my life. I even knew a working actor who'd been on "X-files" and still has a stage/film career, and he admitted that he thinks of quitting everyday. We've all had those thoughts.

Anyway, I go to my actor's meeting, bummed out and fighting the urge to bawl in public, and I get to the location at the lodge on Pembina Hwy. I hadn't rehearsed the scene in a week and I wasn't sure of my lines to go over with Millie, but I relaxed and went with it, putting the rest of my emotional day behind. Millie and I do our scene, and the whole group applauds us, complimenting us, saying how flawless it was, praising our acting, and as casual as I was on the outside, I'm thinking, man, I really needed this validation. This was why I go to the group: I don't get this kind of support anywhere else. I also remembered why I moved away from home in the first place too, and my dad reminded me of that.

Now, I understand why my dad said the things he did yesterday. He wasn't being evil or malicious. Every parent tries to steer their kids in a direction that's financially secure, (as my dad pointed out) like my 2 brothers, who I'm nothing like. If I had kids, I'd want to make sure they were doing well so I could be proud of them feel like I was a good parent, but my dad is clearly not proud of me, and as long as I go my own way, he never will be.The only option is to find a job and move away from this repressed household, again, and unshackle myself.