March 5, 1974

This was me, almost 38 years ago.

March 5, 1974.

On that day, in a Bergen County, NJ hospital room, two very special people gave me a very special gift: the gift of life. Those two people, whom I grew to call Mom and Dad, likely didn’t have a clue what they were getting themselves into. Making it through the day, much less the first year, seemed like an unachievable feat. They’d brought me into the world, and I’d thanked them by spitting up in Mom’s hair and peeing in Dad’s face. (I don’t know this as fact, but from my own paternal experiences, I can be pretty confident that I did these things).

They didn’t really know how to raise a child, but with the advice of others and some lessons learned through trial-and-error, they figured it out. And they did a good job of it. They gave me a good life.