Giving Thanks in 2020

Despite it being a terrible year by any standard, I was incredibly fortunate this year.

Here is an abridged list of the things I’m grateful for:

I am grateful for already being in the habit of regularly talking on the phone for hours on end with my Mom and brothers, Garrett and Austin. In this regard, we were ready for 2020.

I am grateful for the time spent at home in Austin after being on the road for over half the year in 2019. My partner and I made the best of quarantine with:

I am grateful for my colleagues at BTS Austin for managing some team bonding despite pandemic conditions.

I am grateful for two trips to the Blanco River with my brother Austin (a doctor who weirdly couldn’t convince anyone else to go on vacation with him).

I am grateful to two biotech clients who trusted me to help them adapt to the Covid-19 environment.

I am begrudgingly grateful for Zoom parties.

I am grateful for the several diagnostics companies who made tests that let me be a little more at ease after potential exposures.

I am grateful for the people of Barbados and the government of Prime Minister Mottley for listening to science, executing public health measures impeccably, and inviting the world to join them.

I am grateful for my partner and two great friends who were willing to take a chance and go on an adventure.

I am grateful for our all of our new friends, many of whom we have invited to our island Thanksgiving.

I am grateful for all the folks working on vaccine development, clinical trials, improving testing and working on logistics.

I am grateful for light at the end of the tunnel.

I am grateful that people everywhere pursue our common dreams: solving aspects of human misery, bringing new joy and light to this world through art and raising each successive generation to be better than the last.

As always, I am grateful that we are in this together.