Raina Morgan Sears, the daughter of Aaron Sears, PHS’s former food service chef, was born on Sept. 13, 2012 at 7:02 A.M.

“Raina has changed my life in every way imaginable,” Sears said. “I’m getting a lot less sleep these days, but beyond that, it’s changed my whole perspective on life.”

Sears said mundane, simple tasks now take a lot more planning, and he has gotten used to doing things one handed. Raina’s also made him a lot more aware of his impact on the world and the legacy he will eventually leave for her.

“What I’m most excited for is when she’ll be able to smile at me on purpose for the first time,” Sears said. “Besides that, I’m looking forward to teaching her how to cook and tend to our garden, playing catch with her, teaching her about music and seeing what kind of woman she will eventually become.”

The thing that worries Sears the most, he said, is what kind of choices Raina will make when his wife and him are not there to guide her.

“We’ll do everything we can to educated and nurture her and give her positive role models, but eventually she’ll have her own opinions and ideas and will be making choices that have real life impact on her and I can only hope and pray that we did our part in raising a responsible young woman with her head screwed on right,” Sears said.

Sears’s cousin, senior Milo Davis said he knows Sears is very laid back and he thinks Sears and his wife, Eden, will definitely be good parents.

“I think they will be very supportive of Raina in terms of letting her find her own passions,” Davis said.

Sears said he wants to convey to his daughter that she is of the utmost importance to him and his wife and she is loved unconditionally.

“We both are very nurturing, understanding people full of love, and I know that will translate into the kind of parents that we are,” Sears said. “We’re both very open minded, and never to quick to judge, so I feel that our relationship with Raina will be one that has open lines of communication.”

Sears said the only strategy they might use is being an involved parent and knowing what his daughter is up to.

“I don’t mean smothering her, but having conversations, and listening to her, letting her know that she can come to us with questions and problems, and if she finds herself in trouble that she shouldn’t fear calling us for help,” Sears said.

PHS graduate, and former food service TA, Andrew Olsen said that it is a shame Sears is not working at school anymore because he knows all the students miss him a lot, but that Sears will be a great dad too.

Sears said, “I miss the students a lot, however I really love being at home with Raina. She’s absolutely amazing and can’t imagine anything better in life then having a child.”

Sears said that having more kids, for him, is an absolute yes, but that’s because he has have a brother and think’s it’s really important to have siblings.

“I love my brother and the relationship we have, and I want that for Raina,” Sears said. “Eden is an only child so her perspective is different, but she’s open to the idea of having a second.”

Sears said that when his wife and he were deciding on names, the only thing they knew for certain was that Morgan would be her middle name. Morgan was the maiden name of Sears’s wife’s favorite grandma and she wanted to honor her by using it as Raina’s middle name. How they came up with Raina was sort of random.

“We wanted a name that was slightly uncommon, had a beautiful meaning, it means queen, and also pure,” Sears said. “Of all the thousands of names, it’s the only one that we both liked.”