Hey, Champ! Its me - your father, and this is our blog.

Hey, Champ!

I don’t expect you to read this until you are much older. This is why I’m talking to you like a little adult. One of the first questions you may have is: ‘What is an opsimath?’ 

Well, an opsimath is a person who learns late in life. I thought this was fitting because I have only just begun to learn about myself, my needs, and that of others in the world. In some ways, this is a blessing because you can absorb the lessons I have learnt, so you don’t have to make  the same mistakes. That said, you’ll learn loads from your own life experiences - and I'll be beside you every step of the way.

Don't worry, its not all doom and gloom, I’ve also done some fantastic things, and I want to tell you about some of them, so that you can decide what you’d like to do. Life is a wonderful adventure. 

I can’t wait to meet you, hold you, kiss you and smell you, but you’ve not arrived yet. It's a bit like when someone really needs the toilet - the closer they get, the more they need to go. I feel like I'm going to pee on the floor!

You are currently inside your mothers belly, listening to the world outside you, being woken up by mammy’s activities and being looked after by your big brother. At this point, you are fully developing - maybe even sucking your thumb and moving around. If you are anything like your older brother, you are tossing and turning all night and keeping your mother awake. 

By now, you have a gender and your tiny little face is beginning to develop. I bet you are stunning — especially if you follow your mother. I wasn’t blessed in the looks department, but she certainly was. What’s really cool, is that you will be pressing your hands and feet onto your mothers womb and this will begin to forge your finger prints. Its amazing to think that your finger prints are a permanent mark of your mother - meaning that you will be tied for life! So, anytime you are missing her, want her, or need her (and she’s not there), just look at your hands and you’ll see her. 

Now, for reasons that are not your fault, me and mammy are no longer together. This means that I am missing out on everything: I don’t get to feel you moving; I don’t get to talk to you; and, I don’t get to do ‘dad’ things like build furniture for your room and paint the walls. Not only that, I also don’t get to share the immense love I have for you, your mother and brother as a family unit. I wish I could share my life with the three of you, but I cannot. As such, I will write this blog to you and your brother. 

There are a few aims of this blog:

• It can be used as a way of you getting to know me. Baz Lurhmann said “Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good”. I love my father, but I don’t really know him; I have no idea what his favourite colour is (mine is khaki green, by the way). So, I want us to get to know each other;
• It will show you how special, beautiful, loved and protected you are;
• It will teach you about where you come from;
• To help you understand a little bit of the world and the people in it;
• I will use it to tell you what I have learnt during my time. I will share the lessons I have learnt from my best and worst times. 
• It will probably act as a bit of my own therapy too.

I love you dearly. I will protect and love you with my life. 

This is our blog. This is our story. 

Lets begin.

I love you,

Dad. 

* The blog will have a search button on it. So if you want to see what I think about music, for example, then type music into the box and click the article. Or, you can click 'labels' found on the right hand side of the page and click a topic that you may be interested in.