I didn’t think I’d ever get married, let alone have kids. That all changed when I met Karen. I’ve never been one to plan too far in the future, except for having my next big exotic vacation planned. You know, something to look forward to and all. Karen’s a planner through and through. I know she gets annoyed at my inability to plan, or even remember a plan that she’s created for us. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s given up telling me any plans at all now, until it’s basically time to go wherever it is she has planned. And really, I’m pretty good with the setup. Once in a great while there will be something I want to do and I just have to mention it and it’s done – on the calendar.

Anyway, I started to ramble a bit there. Back to the point. Before we got married there was no real talk about having kids. What little talk we had was pretty vague, but seemed more on the “no” side. I guess not having an “absolutely not” response from me was essentially giving her the nod that if she wanted to then it was okay (this is me talking in retrospect mind you). Since I’ve met Karen, I’m pretty sure that she’s known our plan the whole time – just revealing bits of it at a time so I can digest it all. I think she was actually able to get me excited about the idea of having kids before it all went down, so I was a willing participant. Now I’m wondering what else she knows about our future that I’m clueless about.

So here I am with an awesome wife and a 14 month old baby girl who isn’t so much a baby anymore as much as she’s already a toddler. Five years ago I’m pretty sure I would have laughed if somebody told me where I’d be now, because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have believed it. Though I also wouldn’t have believed that I’d end up in a landlocked city for a dozen years either, but that’s a different story.

Now that I have a kid, I can’t imagine life without her. It truly has been an absolute blast. I’ve really really enjoyed it all. Sure, the responsibility of it all is a little terrifying at moments, but I just can’t say enough good things about it. My only regret is that I didn’t have any kids until I was 40. Now I’m concerned about being able to keep up and all that.

So back to my friends who are just sure they don’t want kids (who are younger than me, BTW). When I tell them how awesome it is being a father, they think I’m lying to them. That I’m trying to convince them to join my misery so I don’t have to go it alone. It saddens me, because I’m sure they would all be great dads. And if they don’t ever figure it out then they’ll never know the greatest joy there is.

I think part of it is that any kids they’ve been around have been rather out of control. But what they don’t realize is that any kid who isn’t your own will appear to be out of control to a relative stranger. When they’re yours then you have a much better understanding of their needs and wants and are so much easier.

I no longer care about traveling the world for myself. I’m all about traveling the world with my daughter – showing her all kinds of great things and creating incredible memories. Trying to instill in her the value of perspective – something I don’t think the average American has much of. And all of the other experiences we’ll have together as a family. I’m now living through the eyes of my daughter. And I think by doing that Karen and I will have so much fun along the way.

If only I could convince my friends that I’m not full of it. I’m really not trying to have them join my plight. I just don’t want them to pass up the greatest opportunity life has to offer.