Father & Son: The Power to Shift the Course

 with Brian and Luke

(Season 2 | Episode 72)

The Father and the Son and the Power to Shift the Course with Brian and Luke

Brian separated from his partner of eight years at the beginning of the pandemic. Just then Luke, Brian’s son, hit graduation. Luke decided to take a gap year, did some backpacking on the AT, then went to work to save money for college. Now attending Emerson College in Boston, more mature, and prepared for the next phase of his education and development.

Brian was trying to change a long-standing family attitude, to in his own words, “sever a generational trauma.” He sought to disrupt a negative method of raising children set by his own father. He “did not want to repeat the sins of his father.”

And in this he feels like he has succeeded, Luke is on a much more advanced trajectory than Brian was at the same age.

Father and Son, Brian and Luke: The Gap Year

Luke was a 2020 high school senior. And that meant he had a lot of decisions to make just as we all hit the pandemic. First, it was a unanimous decision for Luke to take that year after high school off. 2020 was a tough year overall for the family, particularly when they were cooped up in a home in Maine. Luke ended up moving from Maine to NYC to be on his own.

And then setting up communication long-distance was a thing to sort out. An additional challenge was that Brian’s father died when he was 51 years old. So Brian really does not have a role model on what being a dad at this stage actually means.

You may be surprised at what Luke has to say in the podcast when posed with the question: “What do you want out of a dad at this age?”

We hope you enjoy this intimate and warm conversation with Tessa, Amir, Brian, and Luke – this week on The Open Nesters Podcast.

Resources for You

We want to provide you with support and many many resources for your own Open Nesting Journey. Our resource page has so much to offer as does our private discussion group on Facebook about queerness and other topics of interest:

Open Nesters Resource Page

The Open Nesters Private Facebook Group