In a way, this letter should be all about Chile, since we spent almost the whole of the year there. But it’s hard to focus on the middle when the bookends were so staggeringly beautiful and impactful. We started the year at bottom of the world, where no humans live save a small number of scientists dedicated to understanding — and sometimes preserving — our world. It is a breathtaking place, with icebergs the size of towns and sunsets that last forever.
We ended the year surrounded by family and friends, celebrating Dylan becoming bar mitzvah along with our California homecoming. We are grateful to all of the grandparents, siblings, cousins and friends who made treks short and far to join in the festivities and to witness Dylan do a stellar job reading and interpreting Torah. A special shout-out to James Green, who managed to make the Friday Shabbat all the way from Beijing, China.
As we reflect on the year, we are reminded of Nelson Mandela’s words: “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” Each of us has been profoundly altered by our time outside of the United States.
From Adela: Change is something we encounter in our everyday lives. It may be hidden, but our lives are constantly changing in more ways that we realize. My life this year has been impacted by change, from little things like winning my first gold medal in swimming, to big things like moving to another country. The two biggest changes in my life this year have been my trip to Antarctica and my return to the US. I’ll start with my trip to the Antarctic. We traveled by boat for one week and four days, and I saw wondrous things that could not be described, as words seemed too simple and plain to make someone understand the stunning beauty of the Antarctic. I was fascinated by the intricate ecosystem that survives in the most hostile place on earth. I also noticed that it was hot some days. Hot. The Antarctic is not supposed to be hot. Our pollution and waste is destroying the most beautiful place on earth. It made me so sad and so angry. It changed me and made me want to help save Antarctica, but I can’t do it alone. I want to use part of this letter to try and convince you to do what you can to help the environment. I have tried to conserve more water and recycle more often, because even the smallest act can make a difference. I am concerned more and more about the earth’s health and well-being because, one, I want to preserve its beauty and wonder, and two, this is a world that my family, friends and I are growing up and living in. I don’t want to live in a world that’s slowly dying from global warming, rising sea levels, or even the poison of nuclear radiation. It’s our responsibility to protect our home.
On another happy note (sarcastic voice), our family is going to be living apart for who knows how long, and it’s going to be hard. I am starting off 2018 living in San Francisco with my dad while my mom and brother will be living in Santiago, Chile. Half-way through the year, my mom plans to return to San Francisco and my dad will go to Santiago to be with Dylan. It’s hard to contemplate that I won’t be constantly annoyed by my brother and that I won’t always be pestered by both my parents to do my chores. Just kidding. I’m going to miss my brother a lot, and whichever parent will be in South America. Luckily we have plans to visit each other frequently throughout the year. This will be a big change for me, but I think I’ll manage.
From Matt: For me, 2017 was the year of the pichanga, which is Chilean for a pick-up game of futbol. I feel lucky to have met Rodrigo Diaz Mery, a work colleague, who introduced me to his tight circle of friends since forever. Wednesday and Sunday nights became my weekly social anchors, though with the inclusion of a beer and sandwich after each game, I can’t say that my fitness improved. I will definitely miss Mery, Tito, Topo, Checho, Cabezón, Kiko, Pelado, Panchito, Flaco, Pato, Gato, Gringo, Simpson, Cristian, Arquero, Pablo and the rest of the Cancha Siete gang, both for the football and for the camaraderie. And, of course, it was tough saying goodbye to Paula and Gonzalo, my dearest friends in Santiago.
Professionally, it was satisfying to see the Chilean congress finally pass the New Public Education law that paves the way for the creation of school districts. I had the pleasure of working on the implementation strategy for the new law and designing a university-based training program for professionals who will work in the new school districts. At the same time, much of my work was focused on improving schools in the US through amazing organizations like New Leaders, the School Leader Lab, Matriculate and XQ. It was somewhat surreal to spend many of my days on the phone with colleagues in the states and then walk out the door to shop and see friends in Santiago. I am grateful to be in closer proximity to colleagues and to be back in the heart of the resistance.
Jeannette and I celebrated 17 years of marriage this year and marked it with an incredible weekend in Buenos Aires. Sumptuous food, boulevards that recall Paris or New York, late night speakeasies followed by later-night dancing. And it was made all the more special by Jeannette’s insistence in doing all the planning. All I had to do was show up.
Among the many gifts of parenting this year, Dylan becoming bar mitzvah stands out. His standing at the bimah not only represented a personal accomplishment and a deepening of his spiritual life, it also continued a generational thread back through my dad, my grandmother, and her family before her. It was a happy day for us, and I know it would have meant a lot to her.
From Jeannette: This year was a great year in travel for me, and two highlights from my year occurred more than 7,500 miles from one another, and lots in between.
The furthest point south was just past the Antarctic Circle on our family trip to Antarctica in January . . . Sailing from the Falkland Islands, across Drake’s Passage, and crossing the Antarctic Circle was a remarkable adventure. I saw and learned so much about:
- the remarkable albatross, which can live for up to 60 years, has a 3.5m wingspan (nearly 12ft), and can fly for up to five years (!) without landing
- behaviors of gentoo, adelie, and chinstrap penguins — I especially loved seeing porpoising gentoo penguins (jumping out of the water at speeds of more than 20mph), and rooted for penguin parents protecting their chicks from hungry skuas
- the magnificence of several species of whales — humpback, fin, minke — especially from a kayak. Breathtaking. Humbling.
- the triumphs and tragedies of courageous polar explorers
- how people who brave life on the coldest continent live — we visited 4 bases/research stations
The northern-most highlight was on a week-long trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to surprise my mom for her birthday. We covered a lot of ground visiting places where our Acadian ancestors lived before most were deported by the British to Maryland during the Seven Years’ War. Everywhere we went we met extraordinarily kind people who helped us investigate our “new world” family history as far back as the early 17th century.
I lucked out with two short trips to Buenos Aires — one with Matt for our anniversary in May, and one with Adela in November. We four took a road trip south to Valdivia and Chiloe for the week celebrating Chilean independence, and we treasured weekend getaways with friends. I was also traveling a lot for work — mostly training educators how to design and implement project-based learning. I relished my days visiting schools to see students publicly exhibiting their work and powerfully reflecting on their learning experiences. My U.S.-based work with XQ is exciting too — and I look forward to continuing and deepening that impactful work in 2018.
From Dylan: As you can see, this year has been pretty uneventful for the Kelefors family. We didn’t visit multiple wonders of the world. We didn’t make a family decision to live in two different cities so that Adela and I can pursue our dreams and talents, and we definitely didn’t create a wonderful family reunion around my coming of age in the Jewish community. So, as I said before, 2017 wasn’t very interesting for us.
While our passports and photo albums didn’t change much, we did. More than anything, 2017 was a year of growth for me, both psychologically and physically. For starters, I passed both of my parents in height, a feat I knew I would accomplish sometime in my life, but definitely not this soon. Also, I have been fully immersed in my soccer development, and that has forced me to build muscle and try to gain some fat (which my parents say is good for some reason).
I didn’t just grow physically. Since March, I have been studying tirelessly for both school and my bar mitzvah. While it’s been fun, and I’ve learned a lot, it was hard. I would get home at 8 o’clock in the evening after training and would have to do another hour of work before bed. But, all this hard work paid off. I expanded my scientific knowledge, taking Physics, Biology and Chemistry this year, along with an eventful year in history, literally. We learned about WW1, the Russian Revolution and a bunch of detailed Chilean history (that part wasn’t so fun).
The other part of my development as a person was my bar mitzvah training. In addition to the practice of my torah portion and blessings, I challenged my knowledge in conversations with Rabbi Jason Rodich, ranging from “what it really means to be Jewish” to what the topic of my D’var Torah would be. For all of you who attended my bar mitzvah celebration, you might say it looked easy. Well it wasn’t, but I can assure you that it was fun. As Simone Biles once said: “At the end of the day if you can say ‘I had fun,’ it was a good day.” I think that everyone should live by that because life is way too short to have any boring days.
And that takes me to my final point. My social life, which is literally the center of my life. I don’t function properly without social interaction, and this year has been a perfect example of it. In Chile, I had a fair number of holidays and long weekends without my friends. These days were the most challenging for me, as I literally couldn’t find activities that could entertain me for more than 30 minutes. My friends were so very important to me this year. As my dad always says; “Dylan, what would you do without friends?” and recently I have asked myself the same question. But each time I ask myself, it’s a dead end. I think about my friends every second of every day of every year, whether they live in San Francisco, Santiago, or anywhere else in the world.
2017 by the numbers:
0 — number of red, white and blue teams that the Kelefors roots for in soccer that qualified for the 2018 World Cup
1 — number of times Jeannette used the Heimlich maneuver to save a friend from choking on a piece of (deliciously) grilled meat
2.5 — hours Adela pored over the books at El Ateno Grand Splendid bookstore in Buenos Aires before Jeannette bribed her with gelato to explore other parts of the city
3 — upcoming eclipses with great views from Chile (2/15/2018; 7/2/2019; 12/14/ 2020)
8 — number of snow-capped peaks we could see from the lookout at Parque Oncol in Valdivia
10 — countries recommended for travel by Lonely Planet in 2018 — and Chile is number 1! (Chile’s 200th anniversary of independence happens in September this year.)
14 — number of family members and friends who came to visit in 2017 — shout outs go to (in order of appearance): Elissa Pearlman, Karen Adair, Gail Langkush, Sheryl Cornelius, Kary LaFors, Judy Boroschek, Karen Hébert, The Kaden-Castillo family (Andy, Suzanne and Delilah), Kati Haycock, Jan Somerville, and Margaret & Ben Fisher — we so loved seeing you!
41 — points earned by Dylan’s soccer team in the second half of the year (out of a possible 51)
50 — number of miles (80K) we backpacked in Torres del Paine over 6 days/5 nights
66°33’47.0” (plus a little) — southernmost latitude we reached in Antarctica — just past the Antarctic Circle
150 — number of Americans (Adela and Jeannette among them) who gathered in Santiago for a candlelight vigil condemning white supremacy and offering solidarity with the defenders of justice in Charlottesville
1006 — days without XC skiing for Matt (dating back to March 2015), a slump ended in December 2017
*****
2018 promises to be a different kind of year. Dylan wants to be a professional soccer player and has a path to do that with his current club in Chile. So he will be returning in January and staying there indefinitely. Adela wants to pursue her interests in music and theater and has a path to do that in San Francisco. So she will be staying there indefinitely. For Jeannette and Matt, that means taking turns in Santiago and San Francisco and finding midway points to meet up as a family. We will be welcoming visitors in either of the great cities we have the pleasure of calling home. We wish you a healthy, happy, and meaningful 2018.
Peace,
Jeannette, Matt, Dylan and Adela