I've been a basketball fan for as long as I can remember. It's one of those constants that I've used to mark memories in my own life. And while I've had many favorite players and teams to watch over the years, Kobe has always stuck out very strongly in my memories.

During 2004 when Kobe almost left the Lakers for the Clippers, I was driving on a long road trip with my Dad across the country. It was before the modern-day Internet, and I vividly remember us tuning in to specific radio stations for hour-by-hour updates as we drove across the states.

When Kobe scored 81 against Toronto in 2006, I can almost go exactly back to where my mind was. I had recently moved to a new school and was having a hard time adjusting. I distracted myself from school a lot that year by obsessing over nightly highlights and box scores of NBA games.

A few years later, I got to watch Kobe win two rings in 2009 and 2010 right as I was heading off to college.

And more recently, I spotted Kobe and his daughter while visiting Disneyland with my own family (he was a frequent visitor to the park).

Like so many others have been feeling, this week has been a tough one. I can't say that I normally get torn up by the passing of famous humans in the world, but this one felt different and cut a lot deeper.

Kobe's second half of life was just beginning, and you could see his always-on Mamba Mentality was shifting to a more focused and family oriented off-the-court era.

I've been trying to channel my sadness into something, so this is my small contribution to commemorate him.

Bye, Kobe.

🏀

Bye, Kobe

While I’ve always found New Year’s Eve night to be an inevitable letdown of hype followed by “Okay, what now?”, I’ve always appreciated that the New Year is one of the only times that society as-a-whole gets to collectively pause and reflect.

This one feels especially important, as it’s the end of a w i l d decade for both the planet and for many people.

For myself (and many other millenials), this decade closed off the teens into late-twenties chapter of my life…and did it in a nicely tied bow sort of way.

Between the end of 2009 and 2020, I:

- Graduated High School
- Moved to SF to attend San Francisco State University and study Photojournalism
- Graduated from SFSU with a B.S. in Computer Science
- Got my first few career jobs
- Got married

And while I’m usually somewhat fast to reflect back most years, I’ve spent the last few days of this holiday break *really* thinking about my goals and New Year’s resolutions for 2020.

Entering 2019, my central resolution was to __slow down__. To me, this was slowing down from both a work and mental level. I found myself moving too fast when it came to decisions, work, or general emotions. At times, I felt myself sacrificing quality for speed and it didn't feel like a good habit.

I don't think humans are necessarily good at achieving goals like this in a black-and-white/check-it-off-the-list manner, but I do honestly think I improved at slowing down and formed better ways to check myself going forward. This is something I'm still planning to focus on going forward.


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## For this year's resolution, I've decided on __"Finish more"__ as my mantra.


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This represents finishing more tasks/projects/goals that I start (or have started). I've never been much of a completionist, but I'm weirdly obsessive about my career and career plans. I feel that a lot of the core elements of my self-drive towards my career could easily be translated to holding myself more accountable generally towards getting things finished.

Too often I catch myself starting a book/task/goal, putting it down, and never coming back to it because I don't remember exactly where I left off. This fuzzy + unfinished state feels leaves me often unfulfilled and annoyed at myself.

I plan to hold myself to (starting and) finishing some of the below goals:

### Life goals

Saving for a house 🏡, continuing to travel ✈, and progressing in my career 💻.

### Personal development goals

Getting better at cooking + baking 👨🏻‍🍳, running more 🏃🏻‍♂️ + completing a 5K and/or 10K, biking more 🚴🏻‍♂️, and doing more digital illustrations 🎨.

### Fun goals

Finishing more books 📚, video games 🎮, and movies 🎬. Additionally, there are a few specific trailing life-todo items on my list like getting my first tattoo ✒️ that feel like they fall under the fun category.

(Sidenote: I've recently started working at Slack, and part of this has been using emojis and reacjis more...they feel appropriate here for quick goal analysis)


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Happy New Year's, and Happy New Decade. Let's do this.

All posts

Bye, Kobe

Welcome to 2020