19/08/2026
The transition from father to friend is a beautiful thing. I’ve looked at Bella as my baby girl, the little girl I needed to protect, guide, and teach. But this summer, it really hit me: my baby girl is a woman. And somehow, along the way, she became one of my best friends.
This summer was different. Dinners, coffee stops, traveling, workouts, business conversations, and life conversations. We motivate each other, call each other out, laugh together, and push each other to be better. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still a pain in my butt sometimes. Kahlil Gibran wrote, “You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.” Maybe that’s fatherhood spending years holding their hand, only to realize you were raising them to become their own person. And in a world filled with both love and hate, compassion and ignorance, maybe one of our greatest responsibilities as parents is to raise our children to love, accept, learn from, protect, and defend others regardless of their color, culture, or creed.
What a blessing this journey of fatherhood has been. Fatherhood changes. You start as the protector. Then the teacher. Then the coach. And somehow, over the years, you become the supporting cast, business partner, therapist, workout partners, travel partners, occasional pain in each other’s ass and always each other’s HYPE person.
As Parents we should never take a second for granted because so many Parents in Gaza, Lebanon, Congo, Yemen, Syria, Palestine and other places do not have these privileges of watching their children grow. Because of this hateful world they were not able to raise, discipline or hug their child one more time. This is a reminder that parenthood is true honor and priviledge that many wish they had especially in Gaza.
