What's important changes
Today after 12 years I removed my degree certificate from its frame and quietly filed it away. When I achieved that certificate it was one of the most significant things I had completed. It was important, a sign of hard work and dedication.
Over those 12 years it's not become any less of achievement. I still take pride in the effort and dedication it took to earn it. However I don't measure myself by academic success in the same way anymore.
The last 12 years have been a different. I've moved from academia into industry where I made sacrifices and committed to the work required to build a career. I've missed important moments of friends and family due to work commitments and have seen progress due to it. In hindsight I feel I got the balance wrong, sometimes it is through regret we realise what is important to us.
Then you arrived and I became a dad, your dad. You have brought a richness to my life I didn't expect. An intensity of love and joy beyond anything else I have known.
Today, I replaced my degree certificate with a poster you, my children, have made me for father's day. It is about the things we enjoy doing together. The things on that poster may change overtime. What won't change is the importance of being a dad is to me. To be the dad who can support and nurture you start your journey in this world. This will be important for the rest of my life, something where I will get the balance right to ensure you are getting my best.
What's important changes over time, when written it is obvious. However when you move through life, you often don't realise what's important to you is changing. Sometimes you will make decisions you will later regret, however they are valuable lessons. For when something of the highest importance enters your life, you will ensure you don't make them again.
With all my love, Dad