21

Sorry folks, I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for a few days. I had the pleasure of going to Las Vegas with my family and friends over the Memorial Day weekend. We were all celebrating our oldest child’s 21^st birthday. We had made this pact many years ago, pre–Hangover the movie, and that day was finally here.

I want to pat myself on the back and my wife too! We’ve done a really good job—and so has our son. What a delight to witness the responsible, intelligent, and funny young man he has grown into.

When your children are young, you don’t know what to expect. To a degree, I still don’t know what to expect, but I like the road he is on. Parenting ain’t easy. It’s like driving: instinctually, you know when you should accelerate or brake, but you don’t always do that. With your children, it is challenging to know when to step in and when to lay off.

In these times of helicoptering parents, kids don’t always get to learn to make their own decisions. Parents want to decide for them. Learning to make decisions is important, not just because it gets you to think for yourself but because you put yourself out there. You get to test the waters. Sometimes you make bad decisions and learn from them.

A lot has been written about the importance of failure recently. It must be a graduation theme this year. We all have read and know the importance of failure—it teaches us to get up and keep moving, to persevere through adversity.

One of the best lessons that I learned early on is that life ain’t fair. The spoils don’t always go to the winner. People cheat, live beyond their means, or just get lucky. So be it.

So, on my son’s 21^st birthday, I say: be happy, be generous, be kind, know who you are, and most important, Jeggings are for women.