NKS Monthly

It’s about time

I wanted to share with you a personal experience that just happened to me. Most of you do not know that I have not seen my father since I was two years old. It’s a long story, but basically my parents had me when they were 21 and they did not have the skills for marriage or to take care of a small child. Luckily, my grandparents, on my mother’s side, stepped in and raised me.

Two weeks ago, my uncle contacted me to tell me that my father was flying to the United States and that he wanted to meet me. My father currently resides in Thailand and Indonesia.

It was a whirlwind. I picked him up at Sacramento Airport on Thursday, May 22^nd, and he returned to L.A. on Saturday the 24^th. What an amazing 48 hours. It was really cool getting to know and learn more about him. We had a really good time. He stayed at my house and he saw up-close what it is like raising a 2 and 4 year old. He was blown away at how much energy Jackson and Max have.

It is really hard to put into words what the experience was like. My biggest take away from this is that how similar he and I are, but that particular choices have really put us in different places in life. I did see so many similarities: his looks, mannerism, speech patterns and much more. It was almost like those stories of twins that are separated at birth, and grow up to be so similar.

In all of this, I found out that I have a 5 year old half-sister that lives in Japan. Someday, when she is old enough to understand, I will have to find her.

Meeting my father really increased the level of appreciate I have for the Grandfather who raised me. I am the man I am today, because of his influence. Thank you POP!

My father and I left things open for future communication. I hope to get to know him more and more as time goes on. I am so glad that he finally decided to make the effort to meet me.

I hope this letter inspires you to do something that you have said you would do “some day”. “Some day” needs to be today.

If you have a something that are putting something off, do it now! My dad and I could have easily started this relationship 20 years ago if he or I would have made the effort. That is my big regret. My life and his could have been that much fuller if one of us would have made the effort sooner. Don’t put it off. Make the effort so your life can be fuller too!

It’s a good life,

Neal Smith