What you relate here is a moving and powerful testament to the importance of several things: 1) A strong sense of self and one’s inabrogable value in the process of sharing the life experience, and 2) the critical importance of having supportive, nurturing parental mentors during the initial phases of growth and maturity that we all must suffer through (and succeed in). Clearly, aside from the fact that so many people of marginal intelligence fill up the world with progeny that (sadly) may not be capable of contributing substantively to the overall higher aspirations of humanity, far too many of them also lack the enlightened and wise insight that parents ought properly be there to provide to their children. Your father is clearly a thoughtful, supportive individual of a high order and you may count yourself fortunate to be his daughter. Nicely composed and expressed!