Gup and Dabbles,
By the time you read this, I'll probably be in my fifties (gasp!), feeling nostalgic about where the time went and bugging you about your college plans.
However, I'm writing this as your thirty-six year old dad and I want to explain why I'm writing this online newsletter (a popular writing format in 2025)
About a year ago, I started writing a book for you dear Gup,
Dabbles, you weren't born when I started writing it so I owe you a separate book. Perhaps I'll title it: Disadvantage of being a second child!
My idea was to share advice that would be useful to you in your twenties.
I'm now in my late thirties (yikes!) so I've had enough life experience that I feel like I could offer you a weird mix of practical advice, philosophical frameworks, and personal stories that would help you take maximum advantage of that very exciting and very anxiety-inducing decade. So I decided to write the book!
But, there are a few downsides of packaging my advice for you into a book.
The first is that neither of you can read yet! Gup, you are four years old and Dabbles, you are 0.5 years old. It's going to be a few years before you can actually read it, and another few decades before the advice will become relevant to you. Unless I make a very strange children's book, I won't be able to share it with you for a long time.
The second is that the book, at least while I'm writing it, doesn't lend itself to getting feedback. Unfortunately, I haven't transcended my ego yet (perhaps by the time I turn 40) so I want to share my writing and thoughts with others and hear what people think about them (unless it's criticism, then I don't want to hear it).
For those two reasons, I've decided to start writing letters to you both publicly, on this newsletter, in addition to writing the book.
My hope is that when you're old enough, you can read these letters and find them useful and get some insight into what I wanted to convey to you at this particular time in my life.
This newsletter (and the upcoming book), is first and foremost, for you.
But I also hope that until you can read them, other readers, assuming I have any, will also find these letters useful and worth sharing.
Apologies if that's a bit selfish of me, but I promise that I won't write anything just because I think it will sound good to other readers. I'll only write things that I want you to know and that I actually believe to be good advice.
I love you both. That's why I'm writing this at all, You're my adorable muses (or is the plural of muse still muse?) and I want you to carry a piece of me in these words.
-Dad
A quick note for visitors
This newsletter is written for my daughters (affectionately known as Gup and Dabbles)—but you’re welcome here too.
If you’d like to receive the letters too, feel free to subscribe!
