At the moment he had to make a wish before cutting the cake he was very thoughtful and spent a long time looking at the cake. His mother shouted, "now Benjamin" and he blew out the candle. I would give him a penny for his thoughts.

She looked pretty embarrased and told me it was nothing, but I wasn´t buying that. After a few more tries, I finally got something. She said: "It´s just...well, it´s kind of stupid, honestly. I´ve been thinking about singing. Like, taking singing lessons. I know it sounds silly, specially at our age, but it´s just something I´ve always wanted to try."

She was very nervous about what I was going to say and then she said: "A penny for your thoughts?" I didn´t think it was a stupid idea at all. I thought it was amazing! She was afraid she was too old to begin learning something new, but I believe that you´re never too old to try something new. And if singing makes her happy, then she should totally go for it.

When my parents bought their first house, my father worked long hours a day to pay for that.

Many times I found my father calculating numbers and how to get money to pay for everything. Every time I said "Father, a penny for your thoughts" he always thought a different thing to answer me and never transferred his concerns to me.