2020 Annual Letter

There are years that come and go. Years that hold no special significance in our collective memory. And then there are years that are forever seared in our minds because of profound historical events or personal milestones. 2020 — a year so often imagined in strategic plans and science fiction novels — will forever be a year remembered, simply because we have never had another year like it in our life times. And at the end of such a year, maybe it’s just enough to say, we’re still here.

Mojito

2020 was amazing! All my humans were home almost all of the time. They gave me lots of attention — lots of petting and playtime. They wore strange face coverings before they went outside, so that was weird. And they were on their devices a lot. I think I am the only one in the family who wants 2021 to be just like last year.

Adela

This year music was a huge part of my life, even more than it had been before. That might be surprising, because I was already spending half of each school day, two late afternoons a week and the occasional all-day Saturday rehearsal, singing. But this year I haven’t had much else to do, so I’ve really been able to focus on it. 

One thing that’s been great about studying music in and out of school is being able to meet incredible artists. I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Ysaÿe M. Barnwell, from Sweet Honey in the Rock, who gave a guest talk in one of my classes. She spoke about the power music has and ways we can use it to improve our communities. I also got to partner with local Bay Area artists like The Living Earth Show through the San Francisco Girls Chorus. I even had the opportunity to collaborate on a project with The King’s Singers, a well-known English acapella group. I have been able to learn from and collaborate with these artists because sheltering in place has given artists a new space online to connect. Being across the country, or even on a different continent, is no longer the barrier it used to be. 

In school we did an interesting project about different protest songs throughout history. Our group studied the LGBTQ+ liberation movement and the many artists that have contributed to it. Songs like Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” have become anthems for the movement, and a way for people in the community to feel empowered. I also got introduced to music from other movements like the Chicano Farm Workers in California and Anti-Apartheid protests in South Africa. I find it really interesting that music is used all around the world to make change. Music can be very powerful because it brings people together. It also helps communicate a message and lets people be heard. 

I’ve also been able to grow musically in other ways besides singing. I’ve dedicated a lot of my time to improving my piano skills. And I taught myself a few chords on the guitar. I even brought out my old flute from elementary school, but I still only know how to play a B and a C. Learning a new instrument is a fun way to pass the time, even if I’m not the best at it. There are all kinds of ways to express yourself with music, and I plan on learning more ways in 2021. 

Jeannette

Early in the year Matt and I participated with Adela in San Francisco’s annual MLK March and were proud to hear her speak to all the people gathered at Yerba Buena Gardens with other youth, city officials and faith leaders. Adela emphasized the need for us to address environmental injustice and the disproportionate negative impact it has on communities of color. Later in the year we marched on multiple occasions, expressing despair for the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless others, offering our support for the Black Lives Matter movement. But marches and speeches were only part of the call this year. We were called through work/school, in our neighborhood, through our communities of faith, among our friends and family members, and with voter registration drives to expand our efforts for racial justice. 

Before the pandemic cut off travel, I managed two trips – one to New York City and another to San Diego – both which afforded me terrific learning opportunities with talented colleagues and evening meet-ups with friends and family. It broke my heart to cancel my spring trip to Chile, but I was able to convert some of in-person engagements to virtual events. I paid a lot of attention to how students and educators were meeting the challenges of teaching and learning without physically going to school, and supported my projects while working from home. 

Apart from work, I volunteered gobs of hours campaigning for candidates and getting out the vote. Some weeks I wrote postcards and/or did text banking, and other weeks I was calling voters or taking shifts on a voter hotline for Spanish speakers. Adela was a huge help, and we cured ballots together in Nevada after election day – a trip we’ll both remember for a long time since we were getting ready to drive to Reno when we learned the election results had been called. I’m especially grateful for Black women in our country. Despite the fact that they were denied the right to vote when the 19^th Amendment was passed in 1920, Black women have been consistent guardians of citizenship. Ninety-three percent of Black women supported the Biden-Harris ticket, and a record number of Black women both ran for and won seats in Congress. Thanks to the efforts of Stacey Abrams, Michelle Obama, Aimee Allison, LaTosha Brown, Andrea Miller and scores of other dedicated folks across the country, we saw impressive voter registration drives and the highest percent of eligible voters casting their ballot in over a century. 

Being physically active was part of being civically active this year. Matt and I trained and fundraised for the AIDS LifeCycle together, and we completed 545 miles of a “do-it-yourself” version of the ride during the summer. Thanks to so many of you, we reached our fundraising goal of $10,000 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. In the U.S., there were nearly 38,000 new HIV diagnoses reported in 2018, and 42% of those were among Black adults and adolescents. There are 1.2 million people in the U.S. living with HIV. For 2021, I committed to ride 1,000 miles and raise $2,500 by June 30^th for the AIDS LifeCycle, which this year is called TogetheRIDE. If you’d like to support my effort, you can access my fundraising page here. To date I have raised roughly 15% of my pledge. Any amount helps! 

Other connections and activities sustained me in this challenging year – Zoom calls with family and friends, weekly yoga classes, reading, virtual services, long walks, lots of cooking, ongoing Spanish lessons and music. I imagine I will continue to depend on them for much of 2021. 

Dylan

I could have been original this year, especially because it will be my last year contributing to this letter as a kid. But I can officially report that senioritis has set in. So, in lieu of a COVID essay, I will try to entertain my avid readers with a piece that really sums up my life up until this point. Without further adieu…[insert drum roll]…I present you with the Personal Statement that I used to apply to college:

I am who I am because of my friends. It is through the effort I take to befriend people and really know them that I make sense of the world and my place in it. Take Pablo (one of my classmates) and Jorge (one of my teammates). When my friends talk about Pablo, they talk about his sense of humor. He is quite funny, but I also know him as trusting and compassionate, a good listener, and extremely hardworking. My teammates know Jorge as a workhorse on the soccer field. But I have seen him quietly working on advanced math or chatting long-distance with his little sister.

Jorge, Pablo, and other friends know how much I care about them. As a result, they respect me and even see me as a leader.

It started on the elementary school playground, the center of my world. I can name just about every boy on that blacktop, along with their strengths and interests. It usually fell to me to pick teams and referee disputes, all while trying hard to win at everything.

It evolved when I moved to Chile as a twelve year old. While I vividly remember sobbing into my pillow at 3 a.m. on our first night in Santiago, missing my friends in San Francisco, I worked quickly to forge new relationships. I deciphered the slang, adapted to a new style of play on the pitch, and leaned into friendships. Slowly, my environment began to feel less foreign and I began to feel more Chilean.

What came next is what I am most proud of — stepping into the leadership that comes from being an authentic friend. At my soccer club, known as the top training ground for players in Chile, I staked my claim as a starter and forged bonds of brotherhood that will last a lifetime. I was demanding, urging my teammates to work harder and get better. My coaches noticed, naming me captain of my age group in my second year, despite being the only foreigner.

My friendships also illuminated the deep class chasm that exists in Chilean society, separating boys like Jorge and Pablo (not their real names). While these two friends of mine are similar — both incredibly hardworking and compassionate — they could not come from more different backgrounds. 

Jorge lives in the dorms of Club Deportivo Universidad Católica and his dad travels 10 hours every week to see him play. Soccer is his ticket to social and economic advancement. Needless to say, he has a lot on his shoulders. 

Pablo is wealthy and attends an elite high school. His grandfather was rector of Universidad Católica under the dictatorship, rubbing elbows with Pinochet and the Chicago Boys who ran Chile’s economy. Whatever his personal goals, Pablo is set for life.

With friends on each edge of this chasm, I tried to be a bridge. I led a class project with Habitat for Humanity, organizing my classmates to build shelters for families in dire health conditions. I was thrilled to learn that they continued this work after I left Chile.

I returned to the States better armed with the knowledge of how people affect my life and how I can affect theirs. Some things felt like just the right next steps. Joining a competitive soccer team, where we reached the National Championship in my first year; volunteering at the San Francisco/Marin food bank to provide meals to my community; and most importantly, making new friends. 

Other things were strange and new. I came home to a San Francisco confronting racial justice and the climate crisis and found myself with questions about how I will contribute to positive change. I do not have the answers today, but I do know that I will not find those answers alone. I will find them through the relationships that I build and sustain.

This year really has been a rollercoaster…or at least a merry-go-round… that was sanitized… and limits the number of riders… you get the point. I do appreciate all the time of reflection, looking towards the future, whatever that may bring.

Matt

I continue to take great joy and pride in my work at New Leaders, an organization focused on promoting racial justice by developing leaders of color and their equity-focused allies to transform learning outcomes for students of color and students facing poverty. Through my work partnering with universities, we were able to broker a partnership with Morehouse College to create and implement a new approach to principal preparation, one that we believe will be transformative in our field. It’s been a gift to me to deepen my understanding of what institutions like Morehouse — which was born out of Reconstruction and which counts Dr. King among its alumni — mean for the past, present and future of our country.

By necessity, this was a year of turning inward. By dint of having nowhere else to go, I gave my attention to our backyard. Since we returned from Chile, we have aspired to create a “quincho,” a grill area intended for entertaining friends and family. Dylan and I partnered on it and leveled up on our construction skills as we transformed almost every inch of our space into a patio, a grill, and a refurbished garden. Little did I know it would also serve well as a writing nook.

I also started a weekly family video conference, which I dubbed the Dead Poets Society. Every Sunday, without fail, the Kelemen/Cone clan — thirty of us if I’m counting correctly — pop onto the screen to give updates, complain about the news, answer trivia, and read poetry. Way out here in California, I am grateful for the chance to be closer to my family so often.

I turned 50 this year. I intended to celebrate that milestone visiting my best friend in Montreal and then completing the AIDS LifeCycle from SF to LA. We didn’t get to do those things, but Jeannette and I honored those who donated to the cause by completing our own 545 miles of cycling. The rides gave me three things. One, a deeper appreciation for the natural glory of California. Two, a new way to spend time with Jeannette. And three, a reminder of my mom’s many years of working to end the scourge of AIDS. 

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This year we hunkered down physically to protect ourselves and our community from the perilous spread of COVID-19. And we doubled down on our commitment to lift up the voices, needs and experiences of others as we fought to protect and expand our democracy. For the coming year, among our many wishes and hopes, the one that rises to the top is to see you in person. Whenever you feel like coming by, we’ll prep the grill.

2020 by the numbers

0 – number of sourdough loaves baked in our home – but Adela & Jeannette made macarons!

1 – estimated number of bears who stole our food hanging from a tree at our campsite during the middle of the night

3 – number of campers welcomed into the Kelemen extended family. Jenny & Gregg visited us in their camper (“Ramona Corona”) in August. Kathy & Dana named their “Cone-a-bago” (aka “The Banana Bus”); and one brilliant baby girl named Camper was born in June.

7 – inches Adela’s hair has grown since March

15 — number of college application essays Dylan wrote in 2020 — hard to believe he’s a senior!

20 – years of marriage Jeannette & Matt celebrated with a lovely dinner in our backyard

50 – years celebrated on Matt’s milestone birthday with a lovely dinner in the dining room

78 — percent of Chileans who voted for a new constitution in October, one year after massive protests began throughout the country. This April they will elect 155 representatives who will comprise the convention to rewrite their constitution. 

93 — percent of Black women who voted for the Biden/Harris ticket

350 – estimated number of peaches and nectarines we picked from The Masumoto Family Farm this year

3,655 – number of hours collectively spent on Zoom in our household in 2020

7,100 – highest elevation (in feet) Matt & Jeannette reached on their “Do It Yourself” AIDS LifeCycle – the day they rode 73 miles around Lake Tahoe — spectacular ride!

10,000+ — number of voters Jeannette & Adela reached via postcards, letter, texts, calls and in person door knocks