The importance of family in my life.
After finishing my education diploma in 1990, in the first half of 1991, I worked a six month contract teaching maths to year elevens in Whyalla. I scrimped and saved, bought a one way ticket to London, got there in the middle of July and initially stayed with my Aunt Nancy. I very quickly found a full time job teaching in a City Technology College (CTC). CTCs were all the rage in education policy in the UK at the time.
Working in that school I met Julie Wilson and skipping much of the detail, we married on June 10th, 1992 and by the Christmas of that year we had moved to Adelaide, South Australia (me coming back, Julie and our daughter Catherine, emigrating). Our sons Euan and Lachlan came along later in November 1993 and June 1995, respectively.
We call ourselves the Wilson Pointer gang and it would be very difficult for me to exaggerate the importance of this part of my life. I'm not a conservative by any stretch of that term, but I believe that family will always be a foundation of any healthily functioning society. How else are children going to be raised - on farms? But, families come in all shapes and sizes, don't let neo conservatives or religious fundamentalists bully you into thinking there's only one acceptable type of family.
I've been lucky to end up with an amazing family and experience the enrichment that it can bring. My marvellous wife and three amazing grown up children are my bedrock.
A very important addendum here is about the use of the word raised. I didn't want to disrupt the flow to the conclusion of acknowledging my family. In my view, children should not be thought of as raised. They are nurtured and grow, but should be allowed to develop into the best versions of themselves, not into soldiers of their parents ambitions.
That easily could be said better, but I know what I mean. I had no idea how any of my children would turn out. I didn't push for any particular outcomes and just provided support and what I believed were appropriate, basic, moral boundaries, relating to self respect and respect for one's fellow human beings. I am very proud of how they turned out, as three very different and unique individuals, but they got there pretty much under their own steam.