To move forward we must look back and as 2024 ends it’s time to do just that.
This year I accomplished a lot on this journey though when I think about it one thing stands out.
There was an obvious theme to 2024. “The people around me”. This year was all about making a memory for those closest to me as I crossed things off my list.
2024 started off in Hawaii crossing off an important personal goal of going to where my family started. Seeing the places where it all began and being around people like me. But as I was there and the sentimental aspect sank in I began to witness it in a different way, I started seeing it from my wife Karina’s perspective. I started to watch her taking it in every sunset, every sip of coffee, every moment as we ventured around, I watched how she took it in and it hit me this trip isn’t just for me to visit a special place it’s to live through her and others.
A mindset that never left.
In May, I embarked on a trip to Miami to throw out the first pitch at a Marlins game. Leading up to this I practiced for weeks and yet the moment went by so fast. As I stood there on the mound the air felt still, the sound was quite and for a second, I felt like I was alone standing on top of this bucket list mountain. When in reality I wasn’t because standing by my side was my friend Paul. He too got to go on the field and stand on the mound and making his own memory. Just beyond him on the first baseline a few rows into the stands stood my grandfather, celebrating his birthday watching his grandson throw out a first pitch. Nobody knew it would be his last as we lost him just a few short months later. In the crowd behind home plate stood my friend Sam holding two phones. One phone so he could record it and another so Karina could see it all on facetime. Each one of them seeing it from a different point of view each with a different memory of that night.
July found my cousin Jesse and I at Daytona International Speedway to be a part of Team Penske for a NASCAR race. Throughout the afternoon we received VIP treatment, getting tours of the back areas where only the crews can go, getting up close and personal with the cars and eventually watching the race from on top of the pit box. At one point in the afternoon Jesse and I stopped to take a photo along pit road and we just started looking out at the stands and I turned to him and said how wild is this we used to sit up there and now they’re looking at us. I could tell that was a wow moment in a day full of how did we get here moments.
A week later was week 1 of the college football season and I was given the opportunity to cross off another visual bucket list item. What I didn’t know is actually I’d cross off two. It was two days after my birthday and I was back in College Station for Texas A&M vs Notre Dame with my friend David. David is an A&M grad but hadn’t been back in years. As we walked the campus to get to ESPN’S College Gameday I watched as David would stop and take pictures of the stadium or talk about his time there. Later in the day as we walked into Kyle Field to take in the game from the sidelines I began to give David a tour of the parts of the stadium I knew. I could see his awe of the place and energy around us. For me seeing the game was tough at times but to know I was able to share that memory with him a die hard fan like myself meant a lot.
The end of this year took me on one last journey. A journey back to Tampa, Florida as I wanted to donate to a Christmas toy drive run by my friend and one of the biggest people I look up to Drew Garabo. I didn’t have to go there in person but I hadn’t seen Drew in years and like myself has had his fair share health struggles. Flying in and seeing him again, do good for kids, and getting to share the airwaves with him again meant the world to me and I could tell the feeling was mutual when we embraced.
Each one of these memories made this year have been so special to me in their own way. And it’s the people around me that make it all worth it. Seeing the same joy and wonder I feel from them makes it feel like all these miles and challenges that you don’t see worth it. And it’s without the love of my wife, my family and my friends that 2024 wouldn’t have been possible.
Here is to them and here is to a great 2025 journey.
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