At 17 years old, when my mom learned she was hired at Bell Telephone in Ontario, Canada, she dropped out of high school and began her professional career as a switchboard operator. After walking to the office every morning, she and her best friend would grab a cup of coffee, put on some headphones, and start taking calls, “One moment please, while I connect you.”
All-day long, that was her job. To connect people.
Nowadays, to connect is almost effortless. In fact, it’s so easy we often do it by mistake and apologize: “Sorry, butt-dialed.” My mom’s job was eventually replaced with technology, but she never stopped connecting with people.
She connected with my dad, and they grew our family to six. Which enabled my siblings and me to build our own families and so on. My parents had multiple businesses over their life. But I’ve always admired how they made sure that their connection to each other was the priority. That it was strong and healthy.
They just celebrated 62 years of marriage last week! To this day, I still learn new things from my parents that I apply to my own life. And I think that’s pretty cool. I've also been trying to learn TikTok and this shoot was a lot of fun to do with mom and dad.
Cheers to life goals! Love you mom & pop. ~Tom