What Sophie Said

It seems an appropriate day to share a story about my dad. Soon, I'll fill you in a bit on why there's been two weeks of silence... but right now it's a space for a story about my dad. Or rather, a story about my dad and me. Of both of us, of a period of 15 months where we were both father and daughter, and boss and employee. When I first graduated, I worked for my dad for just under a year and a half, and in that period we learned a lot about each other and about ourselves. Not only were there new boundaries to navigate, and the need to establish that line between work time and family time, but I was in a period where I was struggling. Towards the end of university was when my anxiety first decided to properly rear its head, and the Sophie that was working with dad then was not the Sophie of now or the Sophie of six months before. I was cautious. I was apologetic, I had forgotten what my talents were, where my strengths lay and how strong I could be. We wer...

Today is Father’s Day, and I’m lucky enough to have a dad who I’m incredibly close to and has taught me an awful lot over the past 22 years! Here’s a round-up of the top five: 1. Friends are important. My dad is probably one of the most sociable people I’ve ever come across, and it’s definitely from him that I’ve learned to give everyone time, and really get to know them. He has so many close friends, some from school, from university, from various jobs, from playing sports… He’s always busy, always socialising, and having such a wide group of friends allows him to enjoy all the different things he loves, with great groups of people. 2. Listening has its place. Fitting in neatly with the friendship theme, my dad often finds himself in a bit of an ‘agony uncle’ position. There’s something about his open nature that lets people know they can trust him, and over the years friends have spoken to him for hours on end about all sorts of things, be it their health, family lives...