Hi, JereMaya. It's Daddy. Welcome to episode one of this podcast. It's a time capsule of my thoughts, stories and advice made specifically for you. And I think many others will also appreciate and enjoy. It's January 3rd, 2022. So while 2021 is still fresh in my head. I want to share my review of 2021: The good, the bad and the ugly– and then the key learnings and takeaways I think will benefit you twins the most

Let's start with the bad. The pandemic didn't go away. Even though it caused a global lockdown in 2020. The sad reality is that when it comes to lifestyle, nothing really has changed. People are still getting sick. And worse, more variants of the virus are out there. The latest is Omicron.

Our way of life of isolation, wearing masks, taking extra cautious, social distancing steps. When we are bold enough to see friends and family - all of this continues from 2020.

Now for the ugly. The pandemic does not bring out the best in our world. Many folks are struggling financially. Several jobs that require a physical in-person presence are on hold indefinitely. And the government for better or for worse has implemented major restrictions where these folks, especially airlines, restaurants, and retail businesses.

They cannot make as much money as they could during pre pandemic times due to these regulations. Crime also seems to be at an all time high. We hear a lot of that in nearby San Francisco, where you really can't have anything valuable in your car. People are breaking car windows, just to see if anything is worth stealing.

What hits home for our family is that anti-Asian sentiment and physical attacks on Asians are still happening. With so much anger out there, ignorant people are blaming the Chinese or anyone who looks Chinese for COVID.

Krav Maga training has taught me to be more aware of my surroundings. And be ready for potential attackers. And I'm thankful for that teaching, but it's a sad reality to be on guard outside our home. The motto by Harry Potter's Mad Eye Moody, pops up in my mind. "Constant vigilance!" – Simply because I dread the idea of someone harming you two and mommy, when I'm not around.

And I admit I spent too much energy and thinking about this topic. , which can be exhausting and a distraction.

Anyway, that's the bad and the ugly for 2021. There's a key learning from all this, but I want to transition to the good stuff first.

Your mommy and I celebrated our 15th anniversary in September. Whew I think faith humor and having such a wonderful support network of mentors, role models and friends are the biggest reasons why I feel our marriage continues to be strong. All of these have been the best 15 years of my life, some years have been truly painful when loved ones pass away, career paths don't go as planned, and some things are just out of our control. I'm so fortunate your mommy has been there with me every step of the way and this 15 year milestone reminds me to persevere and be the best husband I can be to mommy.

Second I'm really enjoying work. For the past two years, I've been leading internal communications at Intercom. I just want to share that some folks at work have truly been there for me, especially when I felt most vulnerable in light of the racism happening around us.

Several friends in and out of work have been vocal and it feels really good to know that others have my back. They don't tolerate hatred and disrespect.

A bunch of us at Intercom banded together. And we co-founded Intercom's Asian employee resource group.

It's called Inter-AzNs. That's spelled I-N-T-E-R dash. Capital A lowercase Z capital N, and lowercase S – Inter-AzNs.

It's a throwback on how Asian-Americans used to type words with lots of uppercase and lowercase letters. It's really silly, but we thought it was fun when we created the name. One thing that's really cool is that Intercom granted every employee resource group, $10,000 to spend on anything that you want when it comes to supporting our mission.

For Inter-AzNs, it's all about elevating Asian culture and people. And with this money we fundraised and executed campaigns for Asian-American communities impacted by COVID-19. We also have invited internal and external guest speakers to share their stories. They talked about their careers, how they jumped, started their businesses. And what life was like for them growing up. This was a good year to get training on how to be a better communicator. How's it be more inclusive with people different from us and how to be stronger allies.

So work-life has been meaningful. And I've met several folks along the way, who I know are lifelong friends.

The last good thing that comes top of mind. And it's really the best one for 2021. It's how the lockdown has affected our family life. By being forced to work from home, my commute disappeared.

Because we live in the east bay, the commute to San Francisco would normally take me one to one and a half hours each way. So I saved three hours a day with this lockdown and this extra time I calculate it to be the equivalent of over 30 days of actual commute time for the entire year of 2021 – and this flexibility has really opened doors for us.

If there ever was a pandemic to occur in our lifetime. This is the best time for our family. Mainly because you twins love to hang out with mommy and daddy. And we have so much fun together. We eat meals together. We get to walk Momo, our cat, which is always a treat for our neighbors who get a kick of seeing an orange Tabby on a leash, walking around the block. We play a bunch of card games. We're getting really competitive with taco cat goat cheese pizza. I love how we all team up on jigsaw puzzles. We're getting faster and faster, with the 1000 piece sets. And then there's Disney plus and the latest star wars and Marvel cinematic universe stories we watched in our family room. We've also been reading together nearly every night and we're about 10 hours left in finishing the last Harry Potter book.

These are really good times together. So that's 2021 for you. The good, the bad and the ugly. And reflecting on all these moments. There are three things I learned from this year that 📍 I think will benefit you most.

Key learning 1: Practice empathy. People are hurting. So we have an opportunity to be empathetic for their situation. That basically means understanding a person's difficult situation, showing interest and being supportive in their time of need. Sounds easy, but many of us don't know what to actually do until it's demonstrated to us. Specific ways to understand someone's dilemma is to ask questions and listen, acknowledge the pain they are in, and only when they are actively seeking advice, give it to them or ask if you could give advice when you think they might be receptive. This gives a clear signal that you're not only trying to understand and connect with this person, but that you support them. Empathy can also be expressed with patience and restraint with people we don't even know very well.

When your door dash delivery . Is late. Yes. It's an inconvenience. But restaurants are struggling. And so are the delivery drivers - maybe they have sick relatives or are grieving. Maybe they're depressed because they cannot spend quality time with loved ones because everyone is working to pay the bills. Let's be gracious to those who we interact with.

Key learning 2: be grateful for what and who you have in your life today. We have been very fortunate with our health. But when I hear about the deaths of our friends' parents and their uncles and aunties who are our parents age,

I know the inevitable is coming. As healthy as Grandma, Grammy, Grandpa and Gramps are now. We have to live as if we don't have many more Christmases to spend together. Let's be fully present and enjoy these moments together while we still can.

Key learning 3: be the light. This is the most important one, because we have been exceptionally blessed this year.

If you can imagine people are cups. Some of these cups are very fortunate where lots of love and happiness have been poured into us.

This year has been filled with so many smiles. Laughs and milestones.

Some would say that our cups are overflowing with happiness. So what if we could direct this positive energy to other people whose cups are nearly empty?

Pouring life into others is something we can afford.

And selfishly, it feels really good when you could help someone who wants to be helped.

By the way I stole this idea from your auntie Diana and uncle mark,

Where your oldest cousin, Tyler graphically designed this sign that says be the light.

And I think it means much more to me today than before.

At Intercom. My goal for the year was to be the light for fellow Asians and our allies by organizing and hosting events that bring us all closer together.

I imagine someday you two will have a similar opportunity, whether it's at school, at work at church or in our neighborhood and i'm excited to see you both shine!

So with these three key learnings from 2021, I hope they make you think Jeremy and Maya. Talk to you soon and i love you