While driving through the semiarid plains in Texas for work my mind drifted to an early time. Now it could have been because I was thinking of my young son and the challenges he faces going to a new school and being the “new kid” or as often as not it could have just been some unknown trigger that had me thinking about being a kid again. Either way I began drifting in and out of random memories.

My biggest challenge as a father is finding a way to teach my son from the many lessons that I have learned in life. I look at how I was brought up and the different things both my parents taught me. I am humbled when I think of how they at times struggled to provide for our family and somehow we as children never really saw this struggle. I also look back at growing up and realize the huge differences between how I was raised verses by brother and even verses my sister. I was the oldest sibling in the household so I experienced the struggle of having nothing all the way through to the struggle of having something. Either way it could be written it was a struggle. My mother taught me to love and be caring toward others. My dad taught me to stand up for myself cause nobody else would. They both taught me that if I wanted something I would have to work for it because things would not be handed to me. It was tough love from both sides and as sensitive as I was on the inside I learned quickly to internalize.

What could I teach my son from what I have learned over the years…

I will teach my son goals over expectations

I will teach my son love instead of hate

I will teach my  son that each decision we make has different challenges and consequences and to think it through before making choices

I will teach my son not to regret but to embrace the decisions that he makes and take responsibility for his actions

In the end I will teach my son as much as I can based on the knowledge that I have acquired over my years of living but what I can not teach is how to live life. We are given two things when we are born into this world the first is life and other is the certainty of death. We spend several years under our parent watch being molded to view life a certain way, to live a certain way and then we reach an age where we have to make a decision on what we want to do with our life. At a certain point it becomes our life, full of uncertainty with so many blank pages to to written on. I can not teach my son what to write for his story. I can only support him when he needs a friend and be there when he needs a father. I am excited to watch as he journeys through life.