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26 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2025 One of my greatest joys as a grandfather to nine (soon to be 10) grandkids is spending time with them at the park. It doesn't take long before I find myself wedged halfway down a slide that was never designed for someone my size, or sitting on a seesaw where my weight instantly teaches a real-time physics lesson—mainly that Grandpa is not as light as he feels inside, and yes, gravity loves me more. A seesaw may be one of the sim- plest pieces of playground equipment invented, but it carries a powerful lesson about balance and the fact that it doesn't come automatically. It's deliberate, dynamic, and requires both awareness and cooperation. In my seesaw analogy, don't overlook the ful- crum, the central and fixed point that supports everything and determines whether balance is possible. In life, the fulcrum represents our core E L E M E N TA RY, M R . WATS O N Feature C olumn by J ohn Watson priorities and values, with family at the center and foundation. When our decisions, routines, and commitments remain anchored to that center point, balance becomes manageable. But as work, ambition, or outside pressures pull us further from that core, the seesaw becomes harder to control, requiring more energy, strain, and emotional effort to keep things level. The closer we remain to what truly matters—the people we love and the relation- ships that define us—the steadier and more mean- ingful our life-balance becomes. In our careers, especially in PCB design, which is driven by passion, purpose, and a desire to make a meaningful impact, it's easy for work to accumu- late more weight on one side of life's seesaw. The workplace rewards measurable progress: com- pleted projects, earned titles, new opportunities, financial gains, professional recognition, and pride Finding Balance on the Seesaw and in Life