Fly, my dear Son, fly!

Dear son,

I looked at your beautiful, tiny face for the first time in the early hours of that sunny and distant Friday morning in March 2005, which remains, and will remain until the end of my days, so clear in my memory.

You slept, exhausted by the effort of your arrival into the world.

Your face was pink and you were so small and fragile.

At that moment, I couldn’t have begun to imagine the endless whirlwind of emotions, worries, challenges, and joys that was arriving with you.

Having just turned thirty, I didn't know that there was, after all, a way of loving that was different from those I already knew – as if the person loved was part of me.

I don't know if anyone can be fully prepared to be a Father (or Mother) for the first time. I was not, however believe me I did my best. The scale of the demands and responsibilities is great, but the magnitude of the joys is even greater.

In your 18 intense years of life, I have taught you much, but no less have I learned from you. Thank you for also being such an important teacher in my life…

I remember your first short “flight” when you uttered your first words, the usual “mommy” and “daddy”.

Today, all these years later, how lovely and rewarding it is to see how you “fly” in different languages, helping your parents when their vocabulary runs out on our trips abroad…

I also remember vividly another important “flight”, when slowly and cautiously, yet decisively, you took your first steps.

Today, all these years later, how lovely and rewarding it is to see how you “fly” on your bike rides, encouraging and supporting your Father, who doesn’t always have the strength to keep up with you. Thank you for never leaving me behind...

I also remember the day of one of the biggest “flights” of your life, a long-distance transatlantic one. When, at such a young age, we took you out of your comfort zone and moved to the great metropolis of São Paulo, so different and distant from the small, peaceful town where you had lived since your first days.

All these years later, how lovely and rewarding it is to remember the confidence and courage with which you “flew” then, in the way you accepted and faced so many and profound changes in your still early life, far from your family and childhood friends, and the country, city and home where you were born and grew. I thank you for your example and life lessons to us and for having been, along with your sister, a true source of inspiration for us, your parents...

Even today, I marvel at how you were able to thrive and endure the constant “flights” of your youth, like an air bridge, with successive moves between two continents, five cities, eight houses and seven schools in just twelve years of your life.

All these years later, how lovely and rewarding it is to remember how competent you were in managing this hectic, almost chaotic, flow of “flights”, culminating in the brilliant academic results for which you worked so hard and which I am so proud of. Thank you very much for your perseverance and determination…

Neither can I forget the way you faced turbulence, strong at times, on some of your “flights”, when things did not go as you would have liked, or even when I, your Father, made a mistake or was unfair to you. You know that making mistakes is human, but I regret mine.

All these years later, how lovely and rewarding it is to look back on the bravery with which you endured those turbulent “flights”, despite some upsets on the way. Congratulations on taking those unpleasant “flights” to a good (air)port...

You know, I wrote in one of my past articles, that “children… have in their genuineness, simplicity, innocence, curiosity, adventurous spirit (without the famous “fear of making mistakes”), selflessness and open and “unpolluted” minds (free of “polluted” social concepts and norms), the greater strength and ability to influence what revolves around them, almost always seeing the “glass half full”, in unfortunate contrast to the  vision and stance often taken by  adults.”.

And that “every child who comes into the world, regardless of their economic and social situation, must be received and perceived as a new breath of fresh air, naturally “unpolluted”, that we adults need to take-in and nurture".

I salute you with admiration for being that child…

I remembered writing these words now that you are facing a world full of new “flights”. A different world, in which Father and Mother are no longer be physically by your side when you wake up in the morning or fall asleep at night.

Now, you must assume the role of pilot for the next “flights” in your life, although knowing that you will continue to always have two co-pilots available to help you with the most turbulent “flights”… because they will surely happen.

And when, I hope, you successfully complete your next academic challenge, don’t forget to keep “flying”. In Portugal or around the world, never stop “flying”, without fear, as you learned early in life and have always done since the day you called me “daddy”.

Good luck my “little one”!

With much love and pride, your Father