As I write this I find myself sitting in the passenger side of my wife’s car on another trip north to Plattsburgh for work tomorrow. Not too much longer and the only time I will be making this trip is to see friends and family. It is a time that I am eagerly anticipating. The better part of a year has flown by. Some of it was good and some of it not so. I think that as a result of this time I have grown as an individual. I have learned more about myself, witnessed the strength of my marriage, and felt a small shift in my beliefs about the nature of the universe. On the eve of the birth of my first human child I hope, as so many parents before me have, that I can pass on what I have learned. At the same time I want to avoid being that parent that projects my image of what I think should be on my daughter (or in the event that we are wrong; son.) I want her to grow and form her own point of view based on her own experiences and choices. When she is my age I hope that she can reflect on her youth in that magical 1970’s Technicolor of memories and remember Shannon and I as positive and supportive, not overbearing and overprotective. I would very much like for those years to be filled with events worth looking back on with nostalgia. I am sure that no parent would ever wish anything other than that, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing it just the same. So until then; here is to a future past hopefully teeming with love.
