by JimRaffel on September 1, 2010
I’m a big ball of mush sometimes. No, really I am. Normally when there is no one looking, like earlier this evening. I had just left my oldest child’s first home that is not a home we had made for her. For her second year of college, she has moved away (25 whole miles) into her own apartment. It hit me as a I walked to the car that both our stories would be changing now.
Is she starting a new story? Or, as I suspect, is one of mine ending? I think the reality is that her story is just continuing on, but my life has changed in a big way today. A way that only parents who have experienced children going away to college (or to serve in the military) can understand.
Yes, I have one more teenager but trust me, this first one, who I love with all my heart, will always be the more challenging one. She just will – she’s like her Dad.
I felt a little lump in my throat as I walked out of her apartment. It hit me how fast the next several years will go. I remember many years ago a friend explaining that his daughter couldn’t be getting married yet. It had only been a few months ago she was a baby in his arms. A couple weeks ago she was a girl scout. Just last week she graduated from high school and went off to college. Surely two and half decades had not passed!
Time waits for none of us. I’ve got a few regrets related to how I parented but there’s clearly no use worrying about that anymore. My story now is to support her from afar. To be the safety net, even if she doesn’t know it’s there. I mean, if you can’t fall back on your parents, who can you fall back on? (I’m sure that goes back to how both my wife and I were raised).
Go out of your way to make the special moments happen. The happiest memories she shares are of time spent together as a family. Normally on vacation when Mom and Dad had less to worry about.
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by JimRaffel on February 28, 2009
Sunday afternoon I will travel to the PMA show for the balance of this week. I decided to ask myself what I really want to get out of the show this year and share the resultant thoughts with my readers.
First and foremost, for a whole host of reasons, we have been going fast and furious without much of a break in the action for almost two years now. So, while I am not viewing this trip as a vacation per se, I do plan to find some downtime. When I first planned this trip I was going to try to pre-schedule all the meetings into 1 or 2 days and fly in and out just in the nick of time for the meetings. However, it became clear that it would be impossible to accomplish this 30 days out as I was trying to do. So, instead, I just scheduled myself in town for the entire conference and decided that when I didn’t have meetings I could take some time to engage in much needed creative thinking.
Next, the aforementioned pre-scheduled meetings with existing and potential strategic partners drove the whole need for the trip. Our private servers and OEM type relationships now represent well over half of our business. The ability to meet with 4 or 5 current and perspective clients of this type in one place over a day or two is very appealing, both from a cost and time management perspective. Of course most of those meetings have ended up on the 12 hour plus Tuesday – go figure.
Face-to-face Networking is always a valuable reason to be at a show like PMA. In addition to the clients and potential clients I have meetings scheduled with I am quite certain dozens of business acquaintances will be in attendance. The trick will be connecting with them (see next point).
I will write a blog entry for JimRaffel.com after the show, and will engage in social networking from the show. If you are interested in connecting during the show days please contact me via Twitter or other means you may have.
Last but not least, I will look at all the cool new stuff coming to the consumer photo market (I’m in the market for a new point and shoot digital camera). At the same time I will keep my eyes open for opportunities and ideas.
I am looking forward to a successful and fun #PMA09 (that is the Twitter tag for the show).
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Is she starting a new story? Or, as I suspect, is one of mine ending? I think the reality is that her story is just continuing on, but my life has changed in a big way today. A way that only parents who have experienced children going away to college (or to serve in the military) can understand.
