The places I go make me so international
~ B-Legit
People I meet make me so international
Wherever I go I’ll be so international
As some of you may know, because my family’s tie to basketball I grew up speaking four languages (my dad will tell you it’s 5). I learned how to read and write in French before I learned how to do the same in English. As I got older, I used to translate for my parents in the market. Back then I didn’t see it as an opportunity, it was my life … just part of what my family did. Hell, by the time I was 15, I had lived in Santa Clara, California, Berck, France, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Caserta, Italy and landed in Sacramento for the first time.
Fast forward to today, I realize now how important it was to be exposed to something different at an early age. I have been afforded the opportunity to see parts of the world because of basketball. my life experience allows me the ability to flow into life differently and adapt. Change isn’t a big challenge, but conforming is … LOL. Anyway, I digress. We will save that for another post.
Basketball brought me the gift of language both on and off the court. Now thanks to social media, I am reuniting with childhood friends that I knew in France and Italy. So thanks to basketball I have learned about friendship. Basketball has brought me so much more because it’s a universal language. But for me basketball had to end. Gone were the dreams of raising my kids in the same way I was.
I have tried to expose them to as much as I could without the game that showed me the world. As I have gained opportunity to see and do through work, I bring them along so they know there is more out there than what they see in their proverbial backyard. Now my kids have been to innovation pitch contests in Chico. They have been to innovation and entrepreneurship events from the Bay and Merced. The kids are now 20, 16, and 15 from cell phones to volunteering at the California Capital Airshow to riding in their first autonomous cars, they have seen and done things that I couldn’t have imagine possible when I was their age.
All this is fantastic, as I grow they grow. I do what I do so they my kids and kids that look like my kids have a greater opportunity to thrive. I’ve thrown myself into my work in order to make this a reality. From all outward appearances, I’m succeeding at giving them opportunity. None of this work has brought the fame and fortune needed for me to afford to take them on long vacations and allow me to do the one thing I’ve wanted to do most … get them overseas. I thought I was never going to be able to and have been feeling like I failed them as a father in a weird way.
Let me rewind real quick. A few years ago, at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, I used to take on interns that showed the willingness to learn and the ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment. My promise to them helped crystallize my philosophy about exposing my kids to new things. I promised them that this would not be like any ordinary internship. As my interns, they would gain access and exposure if they simply worked hard.
They had to first trust the process and understand that by representing me they were representing the Governor and the citizens of the California. With that in mind, I had interns calling and interacting with CEOs, working with faculty at major universities, guiding efforts for the state to compete nationally and even managing my social media strategy. All this was an effort to give them real world experience that would help build their resumes.
I had an intern named Antonio from Spain. He cold called me from San Diego and asked if he could come up to Sacramento and intern for me in order to continue his international business studies. Next thing you know here he was smiling everyday and trying to adjust to my abstract thinking. I’m sure it was in no way what he was expecting. He traveled with me to events including a couple with my two youngest out at UC Merced. I was able to introduce him to his first Squeeze Burger.
In return he shared a little gem with me. He told me that he flew home frequently on the weekends. My response was … to San Diego? He laughed and then introduced me to Norwegian Air. He told me that he flew round trip from Oakland to Spain for under $500. My was response was … WTF? No way! Then he had me download the app and showed me.
Whoa!!! What?!? This was amazing. For the first time in a while, I saw that I might be able to provide my kids with a different experience. One that I thought was forever out of reach. Still needed a bit of time to figure it out. See if it was real … you know what I mean. So I watched prices and began dreaming again. Crazy thing is this is exactly what I needed to stimulate my work, my life, my soul. The dreaming helped me grow.
I had a target so began to dream big albeit mostly at work. What if California stepped into its strength as an innovation super power? What if out of Sacramento, I could help shape the State’s autonomous car vision or its drone future or further reinforce its standing as the life science leader? I was able to do a bit of that and am still striving for more but that too is for another post.
Back to this international travel epiphany. A few years pass, I met the yin to my yang on of all places … you guessed it Tinder, but again that is fodder for another post. Christy and I started thinking about taking a trip abroad to test out the Norwegian Air experience. Just the two of us. Night after night we looked, plotted and planned. Along the way, we won a live auction trip to Barcelona aboard Norwegian Air. I bought a ring. Got engaged in Jardin Botanico de Barcelona. Now here we are today.
Christy and I loved how easy it was to navigate the city. We loved the history and culture of the city. We loved the food. After thinking about it, we both thought this might be a great city to take the kids to. So finally made it happen. It took almost a year to save the money to pay off the trip before leaving using an app called Digit, but I got them out of the country and took my first father/kids international trip to Barcelona.
The kids and I had a blast. We took more than 78,000 steps over six days as we explored La Rambla, the beach, la Sagrada Família, the Gothic Quarters, the Museu de la Xocolata, one wing of the Museu National d’Art de Catalunya, The Barcelona y Flamenco show, the Palau de Musica Catalana (by accident) and more. They got to experience the ease of the metro and shopping the street vendors as I negotiated prices in English, French and a little Spanish. Man it was a blast. We ate different food every day. They tried everything from seafood paella to their favorite the patatas bravas.
The two youngest even went exploring together to go buy breakfast for the four of us. They walked (1.5 miles) to two grocery stores and a pastry shop armed with only their Apple maps and some euros. Think about it, I can’t get them to walk anywhere in Elk Grove. I asked them what the difference was. They told me there is stuff everywhere in Eixample to see compared to back home. Almost every morning we ate breakfast on the terrace of our Airbnb overlooking the city and talked about where we were going to walk that day.
Before leaving the kids and I talked about all the different languages they heard. For a brief moment they understood why I push them to get on Duolingo (they don’t do it) . They got a glimpse into my vision for the work I do. They said it would be pretty cool if Sacramento was an international city with a lot of great food, places to go, art and culture. That’s all I have for now. Dream big with and for your kids. Make an intentional effort to expose them to something new every couple months. They may never step thru the doors you open for them, but at least they know there is more out there. Next up for me …planning a wedding, helping my city and maybe others achieve their innovation vision and last but not least dreaming with the kids about our next international vacation.
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