We live thousands of first times, and each one gets tucked away whole. The fact and the feeling.

The first day we left home for school, a small hand let go of a bigger one. The first crush, that particular ache of wanting to be seen. The first time we won something and felt proud, grateful and unbeatable.

Firsts aren’t only the bright ones. There’s the first real fear, the first failure, the first time something broke that we thought couldn’t. But we came through. And coming through is its own kind of first. The first time we learned we could survive something we didn’t think we could.

I remember one first clearly. Nicol Williamson played “Hamlet ” at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. June 1969. I was eighteen. I had read the play, but I had never heard it. Never heard “To be or not to be” spoken by someone whose entire job was to make those words feel like they were being thought for the first time, right in front of me. I’ve loved that play ever since. Fifty-six years later, I still remember exactly where I was sitting.

Not every first needs that much weight to matter. Yesterday I learned how to make zucchini carpaccio, sliced thin, raw, dressed simply. Today I walked into a store I’d never been in before. Small firsts. But they still count. They stand out when you are aware of firsts and your mind goes, “Oh — this is new,” and you pay closer attention because of it.

That’s what firsts do, big or small. They don’t fade the way ordinary days do. The details stay sharp — the light, the smell, who was standing next to you — because a first time is really a first time becoming. It’s the moment a piece of who you are shows up and introduces itself.

So here’s what I’m asking today: What are your firsts?

Not the whole list but the one that surfaces right now. It might be Hamlet at eighteen. It might be a vegetable you tried yesterday. Both are real. Sit with it awhile before you read on. Linger and even write it down in full detail. Let it return to you.

Here’s the other thing worth remembering:

Today is August 22, 2026. It’s a first and full of first times too. Somewhere in the next 24 hours, something will happen to you for the very first time — a sentence, a taste, a small kindness — and you’ll walk right past it if you’re not watching.

So watch for the first time. See what it gives you.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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This also matters – First Impressions.

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