Kobe Bryant has died Sunday morning after being in a helicopter crash along with his daughter and seven other individuals. He was 41 years old and retired from the NBA in 2016. Kobe leaves behind his wife Vanessa and three daughters.
Kobe and his 13-year old daughter Gianna were on their way to a travel basketball game.
If you’ve been following my Instagram closely for the last few months, you may have noticed quite a bit of football content. It isn’t necessarily new, but it’s frequent enough that it has been brought up to me.
“When did you become such a fan? I didn’t know you were into football.”
“I’m not. I’m into the Seahawks.”
Growing up, my family has always been a fan of the team. Younger me couldn’t have been bothered, but what else could you expect from a kid who wanted to just read and play dress-up? High school football games were just a social outing for me. I loved getting indulged in the games. Yes, at times, I might have got injured and perhaps thought about visiting an athlete recovery center near me, but those wounds and injuries never really bothered me much. Instead, I became more fond of football. I ended up at a university that wasn’t even D1 for the longest time and even then, we still didn’t have a football team. I had this question myself recently – “when and how did I actually start liking football?”
It was when I moved to the Bay Area. I rejected Bay Area sports and didn’t want to become a fan of the 49’ers just because I lived here. It was the thing that I did with both Mandi and Eric and their love of football trickled down to me, but mostly, it was the thing that bonded me back to my hometown. Despite moving away, it was the thing that made me feel connected to my family and something that we could relate on. Originally, 2013 when I decided on this, the transition was rough. Coworkers ridiculed me on being a band wagon fan and that I didn’t know the rules and sure they weren’t wrong. There are a lot of rules! Luckily, I’ve picked up a lot over the last few years. While i’m not on the level of those in the office who love their Online sports betting and fantasy football and the like, I am still proud of what I do know.
But here’s the funny thing about sports. People love to tease and bully you for it if you don’t come out of the womb loving it. Sometimes it doesn’t happen that way and that’s okay! We can all learn to embrace it when it makes the most sense for us. Today, is our last home game of the regular season and while I’m excited to see where it might lead for us, I’m also ready to get back to my Sundays!
For me, birthdays can act as complete shifts in your life. It was decided that this year, I wouldn’t celebrate the way I normally would and opt for smaller gatherings. The morning after last weekend’s wedding, my friends and I seemed to all decide that we were going to change our perspectives on how we had been “doing life.” In my day-to-day, my weekdays are now packed with activities every night while my weekends are seemingly quite open.
I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t it worse to go out and have a night of drinking during the work week? Yes, it’s completely irresponsible, but I don’t make the rules here! I will say, that it does feel great to wake up in the morning on the weekends without a hangover and with a complete and clear mind to tackle the day. It also means I can make it to my 11AM workout class without any regrets.
This moment right now is not in balance, but I have some high hopes that we’ll be able to get there. Eventually.
Have any of you been glued to the Olympics for the last couple of weeks? It’s consuming so much of what my friends and I have been talking about, but to be honest, I haven’t watched as much of it as I would’ve liked. 1. I’m obsessed with Chloe Kim and her father. And 2. Ice skating comes second to that. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you who won in each event or how many different events there were.
When I’m work and interviewing candidates, I typically ask them to me the last thing they learned. Then when they ask me that question back, I’m almost completely caught off guard. Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of these Vox type videos, but also that Suchin Pak podcast on saving money. They are providing me with a lot of great material to share when people ask me what I’ve been learning! This one on how ice skaters choose their music featuring US Olympian Adam Rippon is so fascinating to me.
This video needed more Marshawn. Of course we’ll be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow, but it’s always less fun for us when the Seahawks aren’t in it. In case anyone is wondering though…um, we’re rooting for the Falcons!
The events that occurred this weekend were deeply upsetting. We have a couple more posts tonight that aren’t as happy and chipper as we usually portray on Yow Yow! so before those happen, I’m leaving you with this: Marshawn Lynch being his best self in Houston, Scotland and with Skittles.