10/09/2026
My dad never cared about my school reports.
I would come home with terrible grades. Teachers saying I was easily distracted. Not academic. Not focused.
He never raised his voice about it. He would just look at the report, put it down, and ask me three questions.
"Are you trying your best? Are you being kind? Are you treating people with respect?"
If the answer was yes, he was happy. He did not care about the awards. He cared about the effort.
I look back on that now as a father of three boys, and I see he was right about so much. The academic stuff matters, but it is not what keeps you alive when the storm hits. Kindness, courage, and a refusal to give up. Those are the things that carry you through.
I feel sad that I never got the chance to thank him properly for that. But I try to tell my boys the same thing every day.
What is the one lesson your parents taught you that you only fully understood years later?
