01/09/2026
1998 → 2026.
Sometimes I look back at the little boy I used to be and wonder what I’d say if I could sit beside him for five minutes.
The kid who thought the monsters lived under his bed. Who thought growing up meant not being scared anymore.
I’d tell him something different.
The monsters don’t disappear when you grow up. They just change.
They become responsibility. Pressure. Failure. Loss. Heartbreak. People letting you down. Battles you never expected to fight.
They become carrying things nobody else knows about, while people still depend on you.
I’ve made mistakes. I’ve been hurt. I’ve questioned myself. I’ve been exhausted from having to be strong.
But I’m still here.
Somewhere between 1998 and now, I realised strength wasn’t about becoming fearless or making the monsters disappear.
It was learning to keep moving while they were still there.
Then I became a husband. A father. A coach.
Becoming a dad changed everything.
Little eyes watching me. Little hands reaching for mine. Kids who needed Dad to make them feel safe, even when Dad was fighting battles of his own.
Somehow, that little boy grew into a man other people now come to when they need strength.
If I could go back, I’d put my arm around him and say:
Keep going, little man.
You’re going to love harder than you thought possible. You’ll have a family you’d walk through hell for.
You’ll fall down. You’ll lose pieces of yourself. More than once, you’ll have to put yourself back together.
But you will. Every fu***ng time.
One day you’ll realise the monster never needed to disappear for you to become brave.
You’ll sit beside it and look straight ahead.
Maybe this picture isn’t about 1998 and 2026.
Maybe it’s about everything that happened in between.
Everything that hurt.
Everything that healed.
Everything that changed me.
Everything that built me.
I still have battles. I still have scars. I still have monsters.
But I’m not under the covers anymore.
And if that little boy could see me today…
I hope he’d feel safe.
I hope he’d be proud.
We made it this far, little man.
And we’re not done yet. 🖤
