From an early age, I wanted to be a dad. Maybe it was because of the relationship I had with my parents. But mostly, it was because I was optimistic about the future.
Even as the world became more digital and more connected, I saw bridges being built. Ideas, insights, and inventions were crossing borders. What felt out of reach for my generation could be accessible for the next.
When I began working in education, it was before I had kids of my own. Still, I understood that the students I served were the ones my children would one day look up to. Today, when I walk into a classroom, I remind myself: these young people will turn 18 alongside my son and daughter. Their voices, their aspirations, and their experiences are just as valuable as theirs.
Yes, the headlines can feel discouraging. But the promise of building a more human future hasn’t gone away. It’s still there, and it must be there for our kids and every generation to come.
Our children are watching. They always have been. If we want them to believe in a brighter tomorrow, it starts with how we show up today.
I’m still the same kid who reluctantly moved to Ecuador when the world seemed to be changing too fast. The same one who lived in New Orleans after Katrina. The same one who built a life in Phoenix when the climate was politically divided.
Fatherhood taught me this: the future is not something we wait for; it is something we create. It’s something we build together. And when we create it with humanity at the center, we give our children not just hope, but a foundation for a future that is genuinely theirs.
This is why I believe in the promise of building a more human future, a theme I expand on in The Future of Human Experience keynote.
