Today, my daughter was born.
That sentence alone feels like it should come with an instruction manual, a warning label, and maybe a second cup of coffee. But no manual showed up. No voiceover. Just her, tiny and new, and me, standing at the beginning of something I can’t fully understand yet.
Strangely, I kept thinking about the first episode of Pokémon.
Ash Ketchum wakes up late on the most important day of his life. He misses the chance to pick the traditional starter Pokémon—Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur—and ends up with Pikachu, the difficult one. The one that shocks him. The one no one else wanted.
But it’s Pikachu who changes everything.
That episode has always stuck with me—not because of nostalgia, but because it’s about beginnings that don’t go to plan. It’s about the idea that we don’t get to choose our moments, or the form they take. Sometimes we stumble into the most important chapters of our lives late, unprepared, half-dressed and out of breath.
I’ve prepared for a lot of things in my life. But nothing prepared me for what it felt like to hold her for the first time. It wasn’t just joy. It was awe. Fear. A sense of overwhelming responsibility. Like someone handed me the controls to a ship I haven’t learned how to fly yet, but that I have to keep steady through whatever comes next.
And like Pikachu, she didn’t ask to be here. She didn’t choose me. But she’s mine to protect, to guide, to grow alongside.
Ash and Pikachu don’t become a team right away. It takes danger, vulnerability, and a moment of total selflessness. That’s what builds the bond—not the plan, not the ceremony. The moment when Ash throws himself in front of danger, not knowing if it’ll matter. And it does.
I don’t know what kind of world she’s growing into. I don’t know what storms are coming. But I do know I’ll stand between her and the worst of them, however many times it takes. And I know we’ll figure it out together.
At the end of that episode, Ash sees a golden bird fly across the sky. The Pokédex says there’s no data—an undiscovered Pokémon. A mystery.
In that moment the idea that even with all we know, there’s more out there, more to hope for. I don’t know who she’ll be yet. But I can already feel how much she’ll change me.
I’m not here to be perfect. I’m here to show up. To love her. To learn. To keep moving forward.
And today, that journey begins.