2020 Amirite

This year has been joyous, tough, frustrating, and sad. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that 2020 has been a roller coaster year. I feel incredibly blessed to be in good health, have a lovely wife and life in Paris, France. Our family grew a bit larger at the end of 2019 with the birth of my wonderful daughter. I’m not going to write too much about her because I’ll undoubtedly start to tear up. The amount of happiness and joy my daughter brings me every single day is hard to put into words. The connection and love I feel for her is something that I both anticipated but also underestimated. My family also grew a bit smaller with the passing of my father in April. I miss him every single day.

The growing and shrinking of my family mixed with everything else that has been happening in the world this year has made for a roller coaster and has made me cherish my family and relationships even more. With the frustrating things that are happening in the world I have found it important to find joy in my family and also doing the things I enjoy to do.

The activism that has been flourishing around the world has been extremely encouraging and even though we have a long way to go it is good to see so many people opening their eyes to the injustice that has been happening for such a long time. Bringing a baby of color into this world has also made me think much more about what I want to teach her what it means to be a strong woman of color and about accepting and embracing others. I feel lucky to have parents that raised me to be a confident black man with so much access and opportunities.

Even though this year has been so weird, I am still counting my blessings and look forward to a more open and accepting world.