3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

It was 15 years ago that I graduated high school. This past Saturday, the day before Father’s Day, I had the privilege of going to my class reunion.

I say “privilege” because Mommy nor your Auntie Dana (my sister) even had a 10 year class reunion. As for my class, we’ve had one every 5 five years; and I have full confidence we’ll continue to have one every 5 years, thanks to the thoughtful dedication of one of our class officers, Tabatha Thomas Greenwood.

(As if you needed me to tell you, that’s me in the white shoes. I say that, because what other guy would be wearing white shoes?)

Obviously, I had a great time, being the nostalgic guy that I am. But it sure helps that in my graduating class of 183 students, they all happen to be cool people I actually want to see and catch up with.

I feel that the people I grew up with since 1986 (the year we started Kindergarten) really do have this special connection with each other. It’s this common interest that we make it a priority to see each other every half a decade. Everybody truly wants to be there; I can tell.

What really stood out to me the most this time, as compared to our last class reunion 5 years ago, was how proud we were of our kids.

Five years ago, you weren’t living on this planet yet. Mommy and I hadn’t even been married a year back in 2009.

But this time, I was able to share in the glory of fellow dads my age who enjoyed talking about our kids more than anything.

It just goes to show you how much becoming a parent really is a blessing in life.

Which, speaking of, the funny thing is you and Mommy were in California this past weekend. I wondered if I needed to write an explanation on a name tag; something like this:

“Hi, I’m Nick Shell. Yes, I promise I have a wife and a son, but they are currently in Sacramento catching up with my wife’s side of the family, who we only see once a year. You see, my wife had more vacation days at work than I did, so she and our son got a head start on our annual family vacation. I’ll be joining them in a few days, though.”

Turns out, no one seemed to think it was that weird of a situation. Granted, there’s definitely some irony in the fact that the very next day was Father’s Day and it would still be days later before I would see you again in Lake Tahoe.

So despite not actually seeing my wife and son on Father’s Day, I still had a great weekend. I missed you and Mommy a lot, though!

Hopefully in 2019, for our 20 year class reunion, you and Mommy will be able to make it.

Love,

Daddy