Gratitude journals are amazing. I started maybe twelve years ago now. It’s helped me slow down and appreciate little things more often. I remember starting out my journal and looking for big events in my day.

I quickly learned that on bad days, I’d have to stretch to something like “I saw a cloud that looked like a puppy.” and that was when I started to look for smaller joys throughout the day. I also stopped depending on other people for joy.

Yeah, it’s amazing how few people remember just how terrible its performance tanked. The memory leaks were truly unbearable.

Honestly, it may be mine, too. I teach history and love having that on my desk. It’s a shame how few teachers got it. But I love the light bulb moment when my students identify who it is when we go through Roman history.

My favourite moment was a visiting kindie kid playing with the pens, really in awe at the whole idea of it being printed. They took a pen out and put it back in, and I made a squishing sound, and they looked at me and said, “That’s pretty serious.”

I don’t particularly want to be remembered for anything in my life. I don’t need fame or standing. I dedicate my life to trying to improve people’s lives as a teacher. I’d give my life if it meant everyone would live a significantly better life forever.

Fair, but this is/was still commonly taught in schools. That’s what the original question was.

Solid clarification and expansion there.

For the sake of expanding on cultural/social differences in other places, here in South Korea, most folks i see on dating apps in their 30s are without kids.

It’s in the 30s that most relationships turn serious and get married.

I know two people here who got married in their 20s and had kids. Even the one who got married in their early 20s is open about how she maybe rushed into it.

My time in Canada supports everything you’ve said, mind you. If I hadn’t experienced life here in Korea for so many years, I’d probably wholeheartedly agree without realizing that without knowing where OP lives, it’s hard to describe what their potential dating windows are.

I was fortunate to have a wonderful father. It wasn’t until it was almost too late that I realized and thanked him.

Be firm, but reasonable. Be kind and sensitive. Tease because it gently builds tolerances. Lift up and build up, don’t break down.

Encourage communication and support with understanding. Don’t punish honesty. Encourage it and meet it with respect. Even when honesty reveals a wrongdoing, communicate the next steps to right the wrong. Help them walk those steps. But sometimes, let them take some of the steps alone to build independence.

Be there to catch them when they fall. Be there.

This is entirely dependent on where you’re living. If you live in a large city, slim isn’t the word I’d use.

Also, not weird or abnormal in a lot of the world. Lots of areas in Asia value education before relationships and encourage someone to be self-sufficient before marrying.

I have a few, but each in their own categories.

• Reality - Departures - A show where three fellows in Canada give up everything to travel the world together for a year, documenting their journey. One year becomes three. It released me of all my anxieties about leaving the comfort of my home and is now a gem of a series I keep close by. Shout out to Andres Dupuis, Justin Lukach, and Scott Wilson for being such a huge inspiration.

• Live Action Drama/Comedy - Scrubs - The best medical drama out there. It is so well written, so impactful, and so enjoyable to go through. It helped me come to terms with my dad’s passing.

• Live Action Sitcom - Friends - 10 seasons of ups and downs, laughter, and tears. The show definitely told us life was gonna be this way. Can’t go wrong with this classic.

• Animated - Futurama - Another contender for one of the best written TV shows out there. It’s so perfectly complete.

• Anime - Log Horizon - I’m a long-time fan of both .hack// and Log Horizon. Both are incredible series. But Log Horizon is maybe a bit more compact and easy to follow for outsiders and is generally a more casual watch experience while still having solid continuity across the series.