Thankful for Home Court
Food for Thought
Most sports teams haven’t played with live fans for most of the year. Stanford football is literally playing surrounded by trees. The NBA playoffs hosted only digital fans, and the World Series only allowed limited fan access at their bubble in Arlington. It’s been a weird year for sports, especially since home court is a major psychological and emotional advantage during competition.
(Blatantly obvious, borderline tacky, but still very true, reminder that the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Dodgers are both world champions and that Los Angeles is the greatest sports city in the world.)
Seeing and hearing how athletes have felt not having their biggest supporters around reminded us just how lucky each of us are for our own versions of home court advantage: our family and friends. We may not have had as many material things growing up, but the people who love and care about us (that’s all of you), then and today, have more than made up for it. You’ve been with us through the good and bad times, through when we’ve been high and low, and in winning and rebuilding times. We wouldn’t be where we are today without all of you.
With that, we want to show our fans some love, from our awesome parents to our amazing friends and colleagues, for figuratively (and sometimes literally) clapping the thundersticks loudly and for booing anyone looking to stand in our way. You all are the real MVPs. We’ll be screaming our brains out in your corners too.
In addition, we hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving wherever you’re celebrating it. We’ll be thinking of all of you when we sit down and say grace this year!
Shoutouts
🎂 Belated happy birthday to Dad de la Torre, Richard, Janice, Chelsea, and Mang (Meyers)! We’re grateful for you and are wishing you all the love and joy in the world 😀
👶🏽 Congrats to Jeff and Monika Zeller for welcoming their son, Jordan Carter Zeller, into the world a few weeks ago! He’s the cutest future grand-slam-champion-slash-youngest-McKinsey-partner we’ve ever seen, and we can’t wait to shower him with affection when all this COVID madness ends.
💼 Speaking of thanking our fans, much appreciated to everyone who helped us with our job search! Thanks to all your love and unending support, both of us will be gainfully employed this December 💪🏽 Jay recently started at Middesk, a fintech startup, and Jen will be starting at TripActions, a corporate travel and expense management startup, at the end of the month. We’re stoked to be getting back to work, and again, are so grateful to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and help throughout the process.
Better Together
Heading into the holidays will be different this year: many of us won’t be able to see all the family and friends we’d like, but we hope you feel at home with us. If you need someone to talk to, rant to, send you good vibes, or say a little prayer for you (forever, and ever, you’ll stay in our hearts…), feel free to let us know via our connection card (anonymously, if you like). We read every submission, keep the submitter in our thoughts, and reach out if appropriate. It’s tough out there. We’re here for you.
Soundtrack
There’s no better way to celebrate home court advantage than with a good ol’ jock jam, and there may be no greater jock jam than the Space Jam theme song.
There are few things better than the comfort of being with friends who have known you forever. Ben Rector, one of the kings of nostalgic music, reminds us how lucky we are to have our old pals.
For an interesting pairing, listen with Drake’s “No New Friends”. We are in no way encouraging you to quit socializing. (Just do it at a very safe distance!) New friends are good.
As always, please keep in touch! We’re so lucky to have seen so many of you in the months since we’ve returned, and we hope to keep seeing even more of you with each passing week. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and are open to a socially distant hangout, just holler! And, don’t hesitate to shoot us emails, texts, chats, or video invitations—you’re all the best part of our days!
Love,
Jen & Jay