Hey Luke!

Hey Luke,

"I am your father!" - Those were the very first words you heard from me. That voice? That is me, your father. Your mum wanted the name and you can't blame me for doing this right? Long story short, your mum ain't the StarWars fan. She just strangely like that name.

2020, the year you were born is a rather crazy year. We were living through this virus known as Covid-19. No thanks to that, I was not able to be with your mum in the operation theatre like I was when your brother Seth was born. Besides that, it is also the year where one of my favourite NBA players of all time, Kobe Bryant died in a crazy accident. #MambaForever

This blog post was written in the middle of the very first night you were born. Sadly, thanks to Covid-19, I was not allowed to be in the hospital with you guys. I had to leave both you and your mum in the hospital.

I am pretty damn sure you ain't gonna read this blogpost until you are old enough for the internet (yeah, it's a bad bad place) or neither do I think I will be showing you this anytime soon. In fact, you will probably not be told that your dad has a blog until later part of your life. I am not too sure how proud you will be of me writing this silly blog and erm, my poor grammar. Oops. (Still)

I was looking back at the very first open letter that I wrote for your brother and I realized that some of the things that I wrote back then actually stayed. I was quite surprised by my own consistency too.

Writing such open letters has become a habit over years for me since the arrival of your brother.

So to follow the tradition, here is one for you.



1. Life is unfair. This is the very first lesson in life that I wish to share with you. It is not because my life sucks or I am going through some dark patch of my life - mid-life crisis nonsense. I am telling you this because you are our 2nd child. As much as most parents will claim that they love all their children just as much, I am calling it out right here. That's bullshit. I am not some expert in being a parent but what I can say is that this is the reality of life. You will probably get a better father considering the fact that I now have 4 years worth more of experience. However, that is probably about it. We are in a different stage of life as compared to 4 years ago. Our amount of resource we have is different. We used to only have 1 child to take care of but now with you around, we need to share everything. You will probably get the same undivided attention and time that Seth got. I am not saying this to make myself feel better. The bigger lesson here is that one should never compare. We count our blessings and what we are given. Life is a lot easier that way. We strive to do our best. Our biggest enemy is ourselves. Not someone else. Don't be a whiner. 

2. Read. This biggest regrets of mine stays. I didn't pick up reading and that suck. It makes work so much harder and learning so much harder. Not only did it make reading difficult but it also makes writing so much harder. You can read anything you want, from news to books to even descriptions of your medication or anything. There's no such thing as knowing too much. Knowledge is knowledge and you can't die from OD. I have been reading a lot more in the past 1 year due to my new job. The benefits of it are limitless. 

3. Be Brave. When in doubt with anything in life, always always take the leap of faith. I read this article online that talked about regrets. They mentioned something like how people always regret more on things they didn't do over things they did and it was a mistake. They had their whole life to forgive themselves and make things right but a missed opportunity will always be a 'what-if' in your head and that eats you up. Anyway, every mistake makes a good story. Never ever be worried about failing. That's the only way we will be successful eventually. I wrote this on Seth's letter as well and I am saying it again. It is not because I am lazy to come out with something new but being brave is one of my favourite advice.

Your mum.jpg

4. Love. Don't be afraid to get hurt. Don't worry that your love will not be appreciated or even be abused. Love is not like a game of squash where there will always be a return. Love is like cliff jumping. You do not know what will happen out there. What will be underneath the water? Shark? Gold? Treasure? Rocks? In fact, you don't even know if you will survive the jump less say enjoy it but you have to be brave and do it. Love, be passionate about things around you. Love someone, love yourself, love great wins, love the result of hard work or even just simply love the process. And of course, love me lah dude. Always love like you have never loved before but don't rush it. Love will find it's way eventually. #MightBeTooMuchForYou #ButYouWillGetItSomeday

5. Talk. One thing that I am very proud of myself is the way I talk and communicate. Look at me, not the best looking dad but I was pretty popular in my heyday (don't laugh or doubt) and all thanks to how smooth I was(or so I believe at least). I digress. This is not my point at all. My point is no matter what happened to you, good or bad, always tell me things. If you don't tell me things, I cannot set things right. I may scold you, I might get angry but remember this, I am only doing those things because I care. On top of that, I will always do my best to set things right. If you get bullied, I make sure they get burned in hell, if you knocked someone up, I hope she is pretty, if you killed someone who is bad, I will make sure we clean it up well, if you killed someone who is good, I make sure I am the one who put you into where you are supposed to and get you out thereafter. No matter good or bad, always talk to me(us).

6. Consequences. If there is one thing that I wish to share with you from teaching and mentoring youths is that I really cannot tell a person what is right or wrong. Not just because I do not believe in making decisions for others, but it is also because there is no absolute good nor bad decisions in life. We will be put at crossroads more often than we can imagine. What to eat, what course to take in school, where to go, who to date, which career path should you choose, or whatnot. Each decision leads us to different paths and we cannot simply say that 1 path is better than the other either. It is not over till it is over. We just have to learn to be prepared to deal with all the consequences. Who knows, if I had studied harder, got into a better school, I might end up somewhere else with a different type of success, met a different girl, and you will probably never be born. And you might just be the best thing in life that I could have missed without even knowing. Life is a strange thing. 

7. I'm Sorry. It is never easy for typical Asian parents to apologize to their kids. I am not sure if I will become one of those people like your grandparents but whatever the case I will say it here 1st. (I think I am fine. I do say sorry to Seth every time I make some silly mistakes.)

Your dad loves his life. He likes his wine and his parties. Not like he doesn't like you but your dad is a little selfish. He wants to work and achieve more in terms of personal development as well as having my very own "successful career". One thing for sure is that  I will never blame you and say shit like you are the reason I work hard so I can put the bread and bacon on the table. It's not that case. I work hard because I want to. Life is meaningless if at the end of the day you did nothing. Live a life that is short and sharp instead of one that is long and meaningless. Don't look back and realized that you left no legacy behind. I know you and Seth are my legacies but you guys are only part of it.

You will live to tell tales of me, the way you know me but I guess I have to do things in order for you to record my victories. I will try my best to develop you the way I want. I will try my best to give you the freedom to do the things you like but there are things I hope you could do to kinda like fulfilling my unfulfilled dream, like playing basketball. So I'm saying sorry if you feel like I'm forcing you to do anything or worst you are feeling neglected by me because I'm spending too much time on my career and myself. Always refer back to point 5. Talk. Tell me about it and I believe we can always sort things out. The point is nobody taught us how to be a parent. One day we are young and wild and free and next BOOM, we are daddies and mummies and we are supposed to know how to be parents?

I choose to believe that I have been a pretty decent father to Seth over the last four years despite doing it for the 1st time. However, I ain't going to be complacent. I will only do better to ensure that we all live our lives to our fullest.

I will try my best to be patient with you boys but at the same time, I hope you are patient with this old man trying to learn new tricks. Bottom line is no matter what, I love you. 

Whatever the case, I hope you grow up well and healthy. Of course, I would love it that you grow up powerful and wealthy as well. Every father would want their son to be somebody so please forgive me if I've been too hard with you over the years. 

May the force be with you, 

Smith of House Leong, 

Father of Seth and Luke. 

Son of Punggol (this title like familiar). 

The unfit. 

Breaker of Wind. 

Drinker of Beer. 

Author of famous book - Facebook.