“Baba, the sound is so irritating. Please turn the TV down. I can’t study with all this noise in the background,” Fizzah said, clearly irritated.
“Beta, you can go and study somewhere else. I’m watching the news,” her father replied gently.
“But, Baba! This is the perfect place to study. My table is here and I have all my books with me. I have an exam,” Fizzah said. She was stressed and exhausted, and ended up taking out all her frustration on her father.
Just then, her mother walked in and asked, “What happened?”
Without saying a word, Fizzah stormed out of the TV lounge.
The next morning, everyone sat down together for breakfast. After being called six times by her parents, Fizzah finally came downstairs. She quickly ate her breakfast and returned to her room without saying much.
Her father knew that her board exams were just around the corner and that the pressure of getting A+ grades was taking its toll on her. What Fizzah didn’t realise was that her constant stress had begun to affect not only her, but everyone around her too.
Everything seemed to annoy her. Whenever her father laughed, cracked a joke or affectionately called out, “My lovely daughter, my beta!” she would react impatiently and push him away. She couldn’t tolerate even the smallest interruption while studying.
For Fizzah, success had become her only focus. She spent her days moving from one corner of the house to another with her books, studying for hours. Whenever she felt overwhelmed, she would break down in tears because she didn’t want to disappoint her parents, especially her father. She knew how much he wished to see her succeed.
A few months earlier, her tuition academy had conducted a series of practice tests. The results were to determine which students would receive a full scholarship.
Winning the scholarship would be a huge relief. It meant the academy would prepare the selected students for their board exams without charging any tuition fees.
Fizzah continued studying tirelessly. She worked hard, prayed constantly and did everything she could to secure the scholarship. No matter how hard she tried, she always felt she wasn’t doing enough. The constant pressure filled her with guilt, frustration and anxiety and, without realising it, she took those emotions out on the people who loved her the most. Her father, who never raised his voice and always showered her with love, was often the one who bore the brunt of her frustration.
Unfortunately, Fizzah didn’t win the scholarship.
She cried for days. Her family’s financial situation wasn’t strong enough to comfortably afford the academy fees, yet she still needed the academy’s guidance to prepare for her board exams. So to manage the expenses, her father took on another job. With his longer working hours, he hardly had any time to spend with Fizzah.
Gradually, she noticed the growing distance between them. Unaware that it was partly the result of her own behaviour, she convinced herself that her father was disappointed because she hadn’t won the scholarship. That misunderstanding, followed by silence from both sides, slowly created a gap between father and daughter.
When the board results were finally announced, Fizzah didn’t achieve the A+ she had hoped for. Instead, she got a B grade.
She was utterly dejected! And what made her even more stressed was her certainty that her father would tell her she had disappointed him once again. She imagined he was heartbroken after all that he had done to support her. She thought he would become stricter, take away her freedom and confiscate her electronic gadgets.
The fear and anxiety became too much to bear and she fainted and collapsed to the floor.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a hospital with a doctor sitting beside her, while her family stood nearby. To her surprise, as soon as she opened her eyes, her father rushed forward, hugged her tightly and gently told her how much he loved her. Her parents weren’t worried about her board results or university admissions. They were only worried about their daughter.
Holding her hand, her father said softly, “I don’t want an engineer daughter. I want a happy daughter.”
Tears welled up in Fizzah’s eyes.
“All I ever wanted was to make you and Mama proud,” she whispered. “I kept thinking about how I could repay everything you’ve done for me. I wanted to live the life you dreamed of for me.”
Her father smiled warmly and comforted her. “My dear child, every parent dreams of seeing their children succeed. But more than success, we want to see our children happy. I don’t expect you to carry the burden of my dreams. I only want you to do your best and then leave the rest to God.”
He paused before continuing, “What hurt me wasn’t that you lost the scholarship. It was watching you drift away from us. You stopped talking to me because you thought I was disappointed in you. You kept trying to live up to expectations that I never asked you to carry.”
He squeezed her hand gently as he told her, “You want to make me happy, but how can any result make me happy if my daughter isn’t happy?”
At that moment, Fizzah understood that a father-daughter relationship isn’t built on perfection. It is built on unconditional love, respect and patience, especially during difficult times. She also realised that honest conversations can clear away misunderstandings before they grow into painful distances.
As she reflected on everything that had happened, Fizzah began to see life differently. She then poured her thoughts onto the pages of a notebook, and writing helped her understand emotions she had struggled to express.
For a long time, she had stressed over trying to be the perfect daughter, but as she wrote, she realised she still found it difficult to say certain things aloud, and perhaps she would never be the perfect daughter she had imagined herself to be.
Then she smiled. Maybe she didn’t need to be. Instead, she decided to show her love in small, everyday ways. Little by little, she became the happy daughter her father had always wanted her to be. And she knew that, to him, that would always matter far more than perfection or excellence.
Published in Dawn, Young World, August 15th, 2026