Eighth Grade Monologues

An introverted teenage girl tries to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth grade year before leaving to start high school.

You're wrong. If you grow up to have a daughter like you, she will make you so so happy. Being your dad makes me so happy, Kayla. You don't know; you don't know how happy you make me. It's beyond… I can't describe it. It's so easy to love you. It's so easy to… to be proud of you. I'm not just saying this. I swear to God, I'm not just saying this. Sure, sometimes if I see you're upset or having a rough day, then I feel sad. But that kind of being sad, that sort of day-to-day sad, or worrying that I do, that's not… Kayla, always beneath all that, I am always so unbelievably happy that I get to be your dad.

Kayla, when your mom left, I was really scared. Like really, really scared. Because now I was all alone with this little girl that I loved so much and wanted everything for and I wasn't sure if I could give you what you needed so I was really scared. I was scared that you weren't going to be okay. I was scared just like you are right now. More scared. Way more… But then you got older. And you took your first steps, and you said your first words, and you wrote your first letter to Nana and you made your first friend; and everything that I thought I was going to have to teach you - how to be nice, how to share, how to care about other people's feelings - you just started doing on your own. Your teachers would say, "you've got such a lovely daughter, you've done such a great job with her." But I didn't do anything. I really didn't. I just watched. And the more I watched you, the less scared I got. I stopped being scared a long time ago, Kayla. You know why? Because of you. You made me brave, Kayla. And if you could just see yourself like I see you… the way you really are, the way you always have been… I promise you wouldn't be scared either.

If you could just see yourself the way I see you, the way you really are, then, I swear to god, you wouldn't be scared either.