I never cared much for appreciations; be it big or small. When I became an engineer, gotten a job, birthdays, or any other goals, I never celebrated. Always immediately on the go towards the next goal. I guess the problem was I have never failed in life. Anything I wanted to achieve, I worked for it and got it. Never depended on anyone, never brown nosed my way into anything, always me, alone, against the world, always winning, against all odds, coming from shit childhood and objectively shit parents.
But ever since my daughter was born, I have really started to appreciate the little things. Both she and my wife nearly died at birth, and the doctors told me that I should name her "Lucky" for coming out completely fine. I was completely powerless and dependant on others for the first time in my life. All I could do was sit in the hospital corridor and wait.
The hug when she comes back from the kindergarten now means the world to me. The happy little dance she wants first thing in the morning, only with her dad, after a "good nights sleep" of no more than 3 hours, well that's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
Corona pandemic also taught me a lot. I don't know if it's some wisdom period people normally go through when they hit 30, but I can barely recognize myself anymore. And I'm happy for it.
After she comes from the shower, we're making pancakes. I can already tell you I will feel more satisfaction from that than the time I've designed parts for space travel. Or solved issues with a submarine engine. Or that one time, when I helped design some stuff for a nuclear reactor. I'm having nutella, but she likes strawberry jam. I'll also give her some of my homemade kompot
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