Last year, I wrote a post called The Dichotomy of You. In that post I said to Mia "You are who I live to protect...Yet, you are to whom I have to teach life's hard lessons". This, of course, means I want her to learn about life without having to experience the bad that is often the finest teacher. Recently, I've been giving thought to what I want for Mia in her life and I've really been struggling with a very related thought...I want her to have every opportunity available to her, yet in some perverse way I'm worried that she'll end up taking advantage of opportunities that frankly scare the crap out of me. A brief example of this is I want Mia to grow to be a confident, self assured person who isn't afraid to take on the world...However, I reeeeeealllly don't know what I'm going to do when she says "Dad, I want to go to school in London". Actually, I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to do. I'm probably going to crap my pants and try to have her mother talk some sense into her...or me. At this point, I really can't even think of the next iteration of this scenario where she actually saves up her own money and says "Dad, I'm going to school in London. My flight leaves Thursday". Somewhere inside I know I am trying to have my proverbial cake and eat it too. I also know that I'll never do anything to hold Mia back from her life just because of my fatherly fears. But, damn, that doesn't mean I'm not going to worry about her.