Rediscovering Innocence: A Father’s Perspective on Growing Up

My daughter has always been the most innocent, sweet, loving, and kind person I have ever known. It brings a small tear to my eye even as I write that now. Like every proud father, I have enjoyed every moment of watching her grow into her own personality, and yet there is a bittersweetness to it. I don’t want to make it sound as though she hasn’t grown into an amazing person. That’s not it at all. But as she has matured into her teenage years, I’ve watched some of that innocence become encased in fears, beliefs, memories, and experiences, like a cage slowly being constructed around her, invisible even to her. The bars of that cage slowly suffocate her expressiveness and the spark of life she carried as a child. Yet I can still see that innocent child within it all: loving, kind, curious, and caring. I suppose this happens to all of us, and we don’t even notice it while it is happening. Then, one day, we wake up and wonder how we arrived where we are. I’m not trying to say that she is…