First time I truly felt like a grown up

The first time I truly felt like a grown up was the moment I held my son for the first time.

I had held babies before, but the realization that this one was partly my creation was overwhelming. Over the next few years, as I (occasionally) changed his diapers, told him bedtime stories, and rocked him to sleep, that feeling of adulthood deepened. 

I even became a master at getting him to sleep, much to my wife’s delightand my father-in-law’s envy!

Now, when my son, all grown-up and in his early twenties, throws a tantrum and lectures me on how I should have managed my life, I remember a baby, who trusted me and felt safe in my arms all those years ago.