For me, often, there's such a cloud of melancholia about knowing I'm going to have to leave my daughter on her own. I don't know what age that is going to be, thank God. It just doubles me up in grief.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm realizing that for so much of my life I had an older viewpoint; I saw things as an older person. That's common among change-of-life babies. So I have this dichotomy where I'm either, like, super young or feel like I'm coming to the end of my years.
As I celebrate life, I can't help but think how young my mom was when she died of a heart attack at 53. My mom didn't get to meet her grandchildren, but I'm determined to watch mine grow up.
But for me, it is when a student has died. I find the death of a young person the most difficult and painful of times. To explain it to other young people, to see a bright future snuffed out, is just awful. I am haunted by those deaths.
I have an eight-year-old child, and I literally can't wrap my mind around the kind of grief that must be felt when you lose a child.
When you lose your mother at 20 and then your father soon after, melancholia is part of your life.
I was 20 when my daughter was born, and making all these plans during my wife's pregnancy. I was going to be the perfect father. Once she was born, it was suddenly, 'Oh, my God! I'm a parent!'
I'm the youngest of four kids. There's something in me that will always be the youngest child, will always look up to people when they don't necessarily need it.
When all else fails, I am comforted by the fact that when I am ill or old, I will never be on my own. After all, you'd have to be a pretty terrible father if not one of your seven daughters was willing to take care of you at the end.
My mindset at this stage, especially after having a daughter... it's just changed my whole outlook.
It's the sweetest thing to be a parent of a daughter. When they hit their twenties, they become these lovebugs that come back. It's just so sweet.