March 12, 2015 — The Day Everything Changed for Maurice Lowman (@marathonpandmaurice)

But before we jump into Maurice's interview, I wanna start with where we always start, which is with a check-in.

So here's what's been on my mind for the week.

Those of you that can hear her in the background, Lulu is about to be six months old, and I cannot believe that that's about to happen.

Those of you that have been following me for some time who saw the pictures of Lulu when she was first born in January, She was just about five pounds.

She went under five pounds when she was in the NICU for a few days.

And now she's thriving and just being an incredible little baby.

And as you can hear, very talkative and very active.

And I just, I cannot believe how much life can change in six months.

And I can tie that back to a lot of things in my life.

I can tie it back to, you know, my running account, my platform, and how just over the last year it's really gotten, you know, bigger than I ever expected.

I've met so many incredible people virtually and in person and made friends with so many people that I just never thought would be possible.

And it just makes me so grateful for what I've been able to kind of build and help foster and grow.

But more importantly, the biggest thing that I'm most proud of is she's right in front of me, this little one right here, because I those of you that have probably heard my story, I grew up without a dad.

My dad left when I was two, three months old, I think.

And so I I had no, I know that there's no guidebook when it comes to parenting, but I had no reference for what a father should be.

My mom was married four times and each stepdad was kind of worse than the other.

And I didn't learn anything from them except kind of what not to do as an adult, as a person who wanted to be a functional human in society.

And so I've been afraid kind of my entire life that two things would happen.

Either I'd be a terrible dad because I just wouldn't know what to do and I would be lost and completely, you know, unable to raise somebody.

Or two, I would end up like my dad.

and leave.

I used to think there was some sort of like genetic thing that was in me that was like, well, you know, if he left and that's in my blood and maybe that'll happen.

But I knew that that was never really going to happen because one, I'm not a dick.

And two, I am an adult.

I'm not going to act like a child and leave somebody who is incredibly innocent and needs care and love like alone.