Author: matt.kelemen

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

There’s a tendency to focus on the momentous things in end-of-year reflections — new schools, homecomings, job changes, travels. And 2019 has had those things for us. But in some ways, 2019 for us is best reflected in the quotidian. Simply living together under one roof back in our home in San Francisco (something we last did in June of 2015). Having breakfast before school and work on a weekday morning. Or staying out late with friends on a Saturday night. Or coming home to find Mojito waiting for attention. Yes, perhaps this year can be best summed up as the year of the cat, the year when an adorable creature that Adela brought into our lives a few months before we ticked over to 2019 brought us all joy and anchored us even more to home.

Adela: I love watching my friends’ faces when I try to explain how classical music can be beautiful, with its fluctuating harmonies and mournful melodies. But, I bet they laugh at mine when they talk about the time it takes to memorize choreography. Going to art school is everything I could have asked for, getting to be with people who have such fascinatingly different interests, but all done with passion and love for our individual art forms.

The end of the decade has already brought some changes to my life. I ended middle school, thoroughly excited to join the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, where I had been accepted in May after a nerve-racking audition in February. I was so thrilled my hard work had paid off, but so much more was yet to come.

Over the summer, I had the amazing opportunity to spend time in Greece with my grandma, aunt, cousin and mom. From dust-covered ruins to sand-covered beaches, we explored Athens, the Peloponnese peninsula, and two spectacular Greek islands. The interesting history and relaxing beauty of such an incredible place was a great way to spend time with family and learn more about worlds before us. Then, my mom and I traveled to meet up with the other side of my family in the rolling hills of Ireland. A whole new history, especially a more personal one, was one of the numerous spectacular things we got to do. I got to meet several distant cousins living there that I never knew I had, and we hit it off immediately. It was so fun to make new connections with people I never knew I had any connection to. It was so amazing.

August, the start of my first year as a high schooler at Ruth Asawa SOTA, was the start of a world I didn’t know existed ’til now. I got to meet so many great people so passionate about art, dance, architecture, creative writing, and so much more. It has been so entertaining. I’ve met artistic and interesting people, and I couldn’t have asked for better friends.

For two-plus years, I had been preparing for my Bat Mitzvah and, in October of 2019, I finally celebrated  it. It was not only a new pathway towards self-discovery, but also a way to connect with family and friends in a place that’s special to me. 

The decade might be ending, but my life is nowhere near that. I’m thrilled to continue growing and starting an adventure to last a lifetime.. with my cat.

Dylan: I am The Mover. This name was given to me for a variety of reasons, and it embodies every aspect of my life this year. This year began with my move back to the Bay, marking the conclusion of our time in Chile. This process turned my life on its head just as it had three-and-a-half years before as we packed up our house and headed off towards the unknown. Some will argue that the move back can’t be considered the “unknown,” but looking back at my life this year, I realize that it was nothing like my life before Chile.   

As most who read this letter know, I have been immersed in the world of soccer for many years. And this year was no different. Upon my return to the States, I completed my move to the club De Anza Force. I have been with them for the duration of this past year and have made various moves towards my future, whether that be pursuing a professional career in Europe or pushing towards a college education while continuing to develop as an athlete. The move has opened up many doors and opportunities for me to advance within this passion of mine and I look forward to what the future holds. 

Another big step I took this year was shared with my dad, as we sought Hungarian citizenship. We spent half of the year learning this unbelievably difficult language only to fake our way through a citizenship interview in Budapest. Thankfully (and miraculously), we passed said interview, submitted our documents and have been playing the waiting game for the approval of our application. This was an important milestone towards our goal to obtain a European passport and helps me move forward towards potentially living in Europe with a professional contract or attending a European university. This moves us closer to a new world of possibilities that I am intrigued to explore throughout next year. 

I have moved through three educational systems in the last year, all fundamentally different. While leaving Chile, I was also leaving a private education, something I have been exposed to exclusively in South America. Then, upon moving back to San Francisco in January, I took the first half of the year to devote my time to things that felt important to me. Obviously, soccer was involved as I continued to develop my athletic ability; but these months provided me with a freedom that I had never experienced before. Among the things that I devoted my time to, I like to highlight my decision to volunteer substantially with the SF/Marin Food Bank. I volunteered multiple times per week and over the seven months totaled more than 200 hours packing food for those in the Bay Area in need of help. This experience opened my eyes to the reality that I had returned to and moved me, both intellectually and emotionally, to understand that I have the ability and responsibility to provide what I can for those in need. However, this is not where the year ends. After the seven months of “free time” I decided that I was ready to return to the traditional institution of school (ugh). Come late August, I re-enrolled in the SFUSD public school system at Lowell High School, reconnecting with many old friends that I had left four years prior. This moved me as a person and demonstrated to me what kind of a person I really am. I as a social, interactive mover, who can’t sit still (literally) and someone who needs to be engaged with others at all times to grow as a person. All of these changes enlightened part of me that I had only caught glimpses of over the years and I am humbled to have had this special opportunity to move through these many environments at such a young age.  

Finally, and most importantly, this year was the first time I got to spend any substantial quality with our amazing 5th family member. Mojito has revolutionized our lives in ways that we couldn’t have imagined (and some that we could) and in the spirit of reflection he has given me this title. To him, I am The Mover. I pick him up, imposing my affection on him — maybe too much (especially when he doesn’t want it)… and so I have officially earned this label. I am The Mover, and this is reflected in how I present myself to the world and it encompasses my life as a whole. 

Matt: I spent half of 2019 learning Hungarian. Or at least enough of that very tricky language to complete a quest that started in the 1880s, when my great-grandfather Albert Kelemen was born in Debrecen, Hungary, allowing me a century and a half later to apply for Hungarian and European Union citizenship. Dylan joined me on this quest, unraveling the mysteries of Hungarian with the amazing assistance of our teacher-by-Skype Lídia Körmöndi (Köszönöm szépen, Lídia!) and traveling to Budapest to sit for an interview and submit proof of ancestry. We have a few months yet to wait to learn our fate, but the hard part is over and we expect to have EU passports before 2020 comes to a close.

The other half of the year was consumed with a new job. I have, with great excitement, re-joined New Leaders, a non-profit committed to transforming educational opportunity for students of color and students facing poverty by developing effective school leaders. I am leading a new line of work for New Leaders, one that is focused on partnering with colleges and universities to transform principal preparation. While it is difficult to set aside the good work Jeannette and I have been doing together with our clients, I know that Kelefors Consulting, LLC is in good hands.

In between these two half-years, we enjoyed a truly memorable family gathering in Ireland. Twenty-two of us — my mom, her sister, and their families — crossed the Atlantic, met up with our Broderick cousins, saw the homesteads of our Irish ancestors, skulled pints, crooned ballads, and spun yarns. It was the homecoming of all homecomings. And it was made all the more special when all of those family members, plus more family and many friends, traveled out to California just a few months later to celebrate Adela as she became bat mitzvah.

A few other notable memories: traveling to Montreal to see Jason and to meet Emily and Maurice; accompanying Dylan to Southern California as his team advanced all the way to the national semifinals; and, for the first time ever, having a pet.

In five months time, I’ll be 50 and will have shared 20 years of marriage with Jeannette, milestones we are celebrating with a 545-mile bike ride from SF to LA. Many of you have graciously donated to our ride and we are so grateful for that.

Jeannette: Despite having a new constant in Mojito to our daily lives in San Francisco, I started 2019 not sure how many months I’d be spending in Chile in 2019. Dylan made the decision in mid-January to return to the U.S. for school and soccer, kicking off a month of flurried activity to terminate our lease and pass on a household worth of stuff. I was hopeful that I could maintain some work on exciting and interesting projects, visit with friends, and keep up my Spanish, but I just wasn’t sure how it would all work out. 

In March the Chilean government notified me that my request for permanent residency (a saga which began in Sept 2015) had been approved, but would require me to complete the process in person, so I planned a trip to Santiago in April to claim it, further some work projects, and reconnect with friends. Of course the bureaucratic process caused me some white knuckles moments to the very end, but alas I have an official “home away from home” for as long as I can keep up an annual trip to Chile. In August I returned for an intense work-focused trip, grateful for opportunities to advance several projects related to teacher and school leader training in project-based learning. The tumultuous events of mid-October threw everything up in the air (more about that below), but I have planned my first 2020 trip to Chile toward the end of March.

Back at home, I was delighted to continue compelling work with my U.S. clients, and engage a new project with the Learning Policy Institute founded by my thesis advisor and mentor Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond supporting the California Performance Assessment Collaborative (CPAC). 

Celebrating life was a big part of this year. I turned 50 in May, with a surprise visit from my brother, and an amazing dinner party planned and prepared by Matt, Dylan and Adela. The celebration continued with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Greece with Adela, my mom (also celebrating a milestone year in 2019), niece Claire, and sister-in-law Laura, and an unforgettable family heritage trip to Ireland where I met Rooneys & Brodericks (Matt’s clan in Lough Rea and Ashbourne) and Sleaters (my Nana’s clan from Sligo). Additional get togethers with friends celebrating 50 enriched the year with much love and reflection. And Adela’s bat mitzvah was a true blessing for me and our entire family.

But this year I also mourn the loss of two dear souls. Prof. Ed Bridges, one of my dissertation committee members whom I could always count on to encourage and support my academic and personal growth. And Daniel McLaughlin, co-founder of Envision Schools who championed a world-class education for all students, but especially for first generation college-bound youth. It is an honor to remember them and their gifts as inspiration for not only my work, but also for ways of being.

I’m grateful our nuclear family was together magnitudes more than we had been in 2018 (7x, for the curious). For Dylan’s soccer games, Adela’s musical performances, training rides and date nights with Matt, our family dinners, play sessions with Momo, quiet evenings reading inspired authors, and live engagements with notable thinkers and doers among us, for good health and new year ahead. Violetta Parra’s world-renowned song, “Gracias a La Vida,” rings truer than it ever has for me. Gracias a La Vida.

*****

The start of 2019 was the culmination of three-and-a-half years in Chile for our family, in one form or another. It was an experience that brought all four of us immense joy and growth. So, it is with deep sadness that we have watched events unfold in Chile this year, as decades of structural inequality and a failure to reckon with the legacy of the dictatorship exploded in angry protests followed by a brutal and senseless response from the government and military. Tanks rolling down the avenues, hundreds with maimed bodies and lost eyesight from supposedly non-lethal weapons fired by police, failed and hollow leadership from the president and his allies. It is a wrenching feeling, equal parts gratitude to be out of the fray, guilt to be unable to stand in close solidarity with our friends and with the Chilean people, and hope that a promised new constitution will bring real change in Chile.

Meanwhile, we have so much to do here in the U.S. in 2020. Now that we’ve really settled back in, we begin the year knowing that the whole of this year will be a fight to reclaim our democracy. We’ll be doing our part and we hope that all of you will be united in that fight. 

The year in numbers

1 – number of new drivers added to our car insurance this year (uff!)

2 – high school PTAs of which we’re members

3 – bridges crossed in one of Jeannette & Matt’s best training rides to date

3.6 – magnitude of the earthquake we felt the morning of Adela’s bat mitzvah

7 – months of active instruction at Kelefors Academy of Learning and Empowerment (KALE) during the year

13 (approx) – vocal and musical theater performances by Adela

22 – members of the extended Rooney clan who traveled from the US to Ireland for a get-together in July

58 – number of teeth Adela brushes each night . . .  30 of them are her cat’s so he won’t have to go to the cat dentist

60 – number of days after she left Chile that Jeannette received permanent residency status in Chile (gotta love the bureaucracy)

98 – percent decline in Hungarian language retention since Matt and Dylan’s citizenship interview in Budapest

225 – Greek islands left for Jeannette & Adela to visit (2 down!)

600 – percent increase in the number of date nights for Jeannette & Matt in 2019 compared with 2018

7,345 (approx) – The number of articles of impeachment left on the cutting room floor

9,000+ – number of miles Dylan traveled for away games with De Anza Force

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time. — Steven Wright

It’s easy sometimes to forget that a family of four is not only a single unit. Nor is it merely a collection of individuals. It is also a network of dyads and triads. Father and daughter. Mother and son. Et cetera. 2018 brought this reality into sharp relief for us, as we navigated a life in two places, one foot in San Francisco and another in Santiago. With high school on the horizon, Adela was glad to be back in San Francisco where she could nurture her gifts as a singer and actress. Meanwhile, Dylan’s continued journey toward professional soccer was best accomplished in Chile. So, with the kids anchored in their schools and lives, we parents took turns accompanying them, an arrangement that gave us a profound understanding of single parenting and some truly incredible windows into the lives of our children.

From Matt: In case you’re confused, from February to July, I lived with Adela in San Francisco, and from August to December, I lived with Dylan in Santiago. Returning to the Bay Area was a chance to re-acquaint myself with all the things I love about this place — Sunday old men’s fútbol in the East Bay with Chris, Wade, Walker and the rest of Alameda United, cross country skiing in Tahoe Donner, (did you know that most Chileans I’ve talked to have NO IDEA what XC skiing is?!), jogging through Land’s End and Golden Gate Park, ramen in Japantown, dim sum and boba tea in the outer Richmond, and, of course, burritos in the Mission.

It was also a chance to be Adela’s dad. Immediately after Jeannette and Dylan took off for Santiago, I got a fortune cookie with the message, “You should enhance your feminine side at this time.” I kid you not. I enjoyed helping Adela grow as a scholar, singer, actress, swimmer, and debater, though I could live without being her taxi driver. We spent quiet evenings and car rides expanding one another’s musical tastes, we marched together against forced family separation, we explored our city together, and we traveled together to Chicago and Indiana for a great visit with the Cone clan.

The second half of the year gave me one-on-one time with Dylan, watching him continue to mature as a student, friend and footballer and making sure he got enough to eat. At the end of the year, I asked him what was different living with me (instead of with his mom), and he summarized it as: “more meat and fewer desserts.” A highlight of our time together was a 24-hour trip to Buenos Aires to take in an important match at La Bombonera, one of the great cathedrals to football. And for a few weeks, we hosted “Camp Católica,” when Liam Nesbitt and Sven Meacham lived with us and trained with their respective age groups at Dylan’s club.  Before leaving Chile, I took one last solo trip (while Dylan was in Brazil with his team), car camping in the extraordinarily beautiful Araucania, with its stunning volcanoes and alpine lakes, and then cruising the central coast to get one last taste of the incredible bounty of Chile’s seas.

As for work, I was excited to reconnect with former colleagues at SFUSD, as I started working closely with Kristin Bijur to build a new leadership framework for the school district. And I volunteered time with Griptape, being a champion for young people pursuing their own passions as learners. Jeannette and I are now full-time business partners and we worked together to support the important high school transformation work being done by XQ and to expand the use of high-quality project-based learning through the Buck Institute for Education (now known as PBL Works).

From Jeannette: I spent as much of January as possible soaking up time with Adela and Matt and reconnecting with dear friends. Once back in Chile, Dylan and I set about finding a new apartment and making it a comfortable home. Thank goodness we had the help of wonderful friends and a good sense of humor. A special shout out goes to the Fuentes family for sharing their beautiful home, storing our things before we could move in, and helping us get settled; but there were many folks who offered us help. During the summer Dylan trained in the mornings, but we had time to check out various apartments and we took turns selecting different things to do together. See if you can figure out who proposed which of the following activities: a) see the Black Panther blockbuster; b) go to a house-party to hear world-famous pianist Paulina Zamora play; c) plan a pool party; d) go to an outdoor performance of Santiago’s “Festival el Teatro”; e) apply our sophisticated hamburger rating system to various joints across the city; and f) take a walk in the park.

Once school began, we maintained a different rhythm. Dylan was up early and back late most days, and I had lots of work trips that took me out of town. When June arrived, my “Soccer Mom” status intensified as we welcomed Liam Nesbitt into our home for Phase I of “Camp Católica” and watched as many World Cup matches as we could. The guys were terrific about doing their share to run the household and we enjoyed various activities which included some volunteer work at Habitat for Humanity, evenings out, and soccer. Soccer in the park, Soccer on the field — both home and away — soccer in the snow and soccer on the tv. You get the idea.

My emotional reunion with Adela came at the Miami airport in July where we met up for a week-long trip to Cuba with my dad to help install a water purification system in Holguín. Before returning to San Francisco we enjoyed family, friends and adventures in D.C., Columbia, Baltimore, New York and Philly.

Once back on the west coast, Adela and I didn’t waste any time taking advantage of San Francisco’s cultural offerings, and every week we went to a live performance of some kind: opera, musical theater, vocal concerts, plays. Adela’s swim practices and swim meets converted me from “Soccer Mom” to “Swim Mom”. We harvested peaches. We baked. We binged on mom-daughter movies and shows. We listened to musical theater soundtracks over and over (and over!) again. You get the idea. In addition, we fit in myriad high school visits to help Adela decide which high schools in San Francisco Unified to list in the school assignment process. We volunteered at a few activities together and I canvassed to get out the vote. We reconnected with beloved family and friends, and we adopted the sweetest kitten.

In addition to living out both the benefits and challenges of being a single parent a continent away from my other family half, I spent the year working with school teachers, school leaders and support organizations focused transforming teaching and learning. I cherish the partnership with Matt in Kelefors Consulting that allows us to work together on compelling projects and look forward to both continuing and new projects in 2019.

From Dylan: Let’s start at the beginning. My grandfather and a good friend kicked off the new year watching fireworks over Sydney Harbour. We spent a wonderful three weeks “Down Under” exploring cities, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and rafting through glow worm caves. It was an incredible experience that I would repeat anytime. I got back to San Francisco from the southern hemisphere in late January only to turn around less than 24 hours to head back to Santiago for my soccer preseason practices. My mom and I got on a plane, leaving the other half of our family in the ‘City by the Bay’. This marked the beginning of our year of separation, and all of the complications that came with it.

We lived apart for 341 days. It was quite a change having only two people in each household, but there were some good things about it. Like doing my own laundry. Not.

Playing on the highly competitive U15 Católica team in Chile was a highlight for me. As most of you know, I compete at a high level in soccer, and every year the challenges have grown exponentially. So, as you may have guessed, this year was the most challenging thus far. As a team, we battled all year for the championship against many great teams in hard-fought clashes. Five days a week — every week — my teammates and I worked out on the field towards a common goal. I’m very proud that we defeated our rivals Colo-Colo for the first time at the ‘Monumental’’ (their home stadium).

I started and completed my sophomore year in high school this year. All 10th graders are required to complete a “personal project” and I embarked on mine to research, build and reflect on games ancient civilizations used to play that were closest to modern day soccer. I started this project in March, and the final presentation was in September. That’s a fair bit of time if you ask me, but all of it was filled with work and more work, bringing this project to life, and my peers and I will tell you that it was hard work. We culminated our work in September when the entire 2020 class presented their projects to the Santiago College community in a showcase where not only the parents, but also other students got to explore the work that we had done over the course of the year. I’m proud of my work, and it was interesting to see what my classmates had taken on in their personal projects as well.

As this year came to a close, I found myself flying to another island with my paternal grandfather (and some cousins) to have a great trip in the Galapagos. We saw tons of wildlife, snorkeled with sharks and sea lions, explored the habitat for giant tortoises and didn’t have any WiFi…

Thankfully we survived all of this.

I moved back to the U.S. right before New Year’s, and recently joined a competitive soccer team in the Bay Area: DeAnza Force. Stay tuned for that story in next year’s letter . . .

From Adela: 2018 was a year I experienced lots of change. After returning to the U.S. from Santiago where I had spent the last 2.5 years, I started a new school, applied to high school, joined a new swim team, and got back into the arts. But it’s also when our family separation began.

One of the reasons I came back to the United States was for the arts. I’ve always loved to sing and perform, but while we were living in Santiago I wasn’t able to do much in the way of performing arts. After our time in Chile, I told my parents I wanted to move back to San Francisco. Sure, I had managed to find some ways to sing, but I knew I needed something more. I came back, re-joined the Girls Chorus, joined the vocals class at Everett Middle School, and started singing with the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) middle school cabaret, expanding my repertoire from classical music to the world of musical theater. Being reintroduced into the singing community was one of the best things that ever happened to me, and it made San Francisco feel like home again.

My brother, on the other hand, wanted to pursue a career in soccer, so our family split up. It was very different living with only one parent, but it was a great learning experience. I’ve made new friends, and reconnected with old ones. Most importantly, I adopted a kitten we named Mojito, whom I love very much. He’s been a great addition to our family, and even when he scratches the couch we forgive him (all of us, except maybe Mom a little bit less). He’s super sweet and affectionate, everything you could ask for in a cat. I am really happy to finally have a pet in the house, especially one I love so much.

Living in Santiago was a great experience. I learned so much by being abroad, but I am grateful to be back home in San Francisco. I am very happy my family and I are reunited once again, and I look forward to 2019 as a family of five.

Post-Script: While 2018 was a year when we were spread across two continents, we’re looking forward to 2019 together as a family of four (five when you count Mojito) in San Francisco. You can reach us at the following numbers and emails: Matt: 415.949.8653 (matt@kelefors.com)/ Jeannette: 415.425.7589 (jlafors@stanfordalumni.org)/ Dylan: 415.910.8408 (dylankelemen@gmail.com)/ Adela: 415.949.8963 (adelakelemen@gmail.com). You can follow Mojito on Instagram @momo_the_kitty_98.

2018 By the numbers . . .

1       Number of Momos now living as part of our family

1       Miles Adela swam in open water in the SF Bay

3       New babies born into our extended family: Mynt (Jan), Alexander (Apr) and Finnian (Nov)

4       Senate seats Dems need to flip in 2020

5       Hours of sunlight you lose when you leave Santiago for San Francisco in late December

5       Number of prototypes that Dylan created for his 10th grade personal project

9       Number of conferencing platforms employed for work and family communication

17     Number of visitors to Chile (from the U.S. and New Zealand)

32     Days we had together as a family of 4 in 2018

130   Average number of years tortoises live in the Galapagos

245   Worst air quality rating recorded in San Francisco in decades (Camp Fire in Butte County)

250   Number of doors we knocked on with California Away to remind registered voters to vote

270   Number of days Adela was a 7th grader

285   Days Dylan trained or played soccer in a team setting

300+ Number of choristers signing in Davies Hall along with the Kronos Quartet