**If this is your first time receiving an email from FINDING GOOD (or you just need a refresher of why I am so cool 🤙), this little blog should do the trick.** My friends, It's hard to believe we are already halfway through the first month of the new year. As I'm certain it was for you, 2024 was easily one of the most memorable years of my life. As I continue revolving around the sun for the 40th time, much of this year so far has been spent reflecting on the journey that brought me to where...
3 months ago • 6 min read
Hello from MARFA! 39 years old. I never thought I'd live this long. At the same time this email lands in your inbox, I will be traversing the highways of West Texas with more than 100 of my friends. Every year for the last three, Breakfast Club ATX has escaped the humid heat of summer in Austin for the cooler, dryer mountain air of Santa Fe, New Mexico. While our excursions into the Land of Enchantment are cherished to be sure, this year - which happens to be our 4th birthday (August 7th) -...
9 months ago • 3 min read
Gaining Momentum Before I get into the meat of the FINDING GOOD FRIDAY update, I have a selfish ask. If you're the praying type, please send one up for my friend and personal hero, Rachel. If you've been following along with recent life events or listened to the first episode of The FINDING GOOD Podcast, you know Rachel's story. This morning at 7:15am, Rachel was wheeled back into the operating room at MD Anderson Cancer Center - my old cancer stomping grounds - as surgeons began working to...
9 months ago • 3 min read
Growing Up Austin While my hometown is vastly different from what I remember growing up here, Austin is an inspired and empowering place. It's always had an "everyone is welcome here" vibe and despite its rapid growth in the last decade and a half, it is as charming as ever. In the first chapter of my book, titled Growing Up Austin, I revisit my childhood in the ATX and how the city wrapped its arms around my family and me during our darkest times. "Like a favorite track buried in an album...
9 months ago • 2 min read
"I miss times that weren't unprecedented." I feel like it started in 2016 when we elected a nontraditional presidential candidate. Then it found a resurgence in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, and with it came plenty of uncertainty and fear. These never-before-experienced events has prompted countless Tweets, memes, and now Threads posts with the sentence above, possibly as a way of injecting some humor into an increasingly chaotic and hard to understand world we're...
9 months ago • 2 min read
Finding Good and Fighting Cancer with Rachel Wimberley "I love you so much." Written in lower case cursive in crimson red spray paint, this simple phrase adorns the north facing façade of the popular Jo's Coffee off South Congress Avenue near downtown Austin. Known as "the most famous corner in ATX" is also where the Morning Jos running community meets weekly on Tuesday mornings to run or walk down to the state capitol building and back. The group was founded in 2017 by Rachel Wimberley, a...
10 months ago • 1 min read
What's your worst? It's not cancer. At least, my medical team doesn't seem to think so. I spent all day yesterday in and out of appointments with a urologist and getting diagnostic imaging, so apologies for motivating you a day late. A couple weeks ago I noticed a little lump about the size of a pea (side note: I hate peas) on the right side of my groin. It has increased in size and discomfort every day since noticing it, and is now roughly the size of a cherry tomato. I'm a little freaked...
10 months ago • 5 min read
It's All Downhill From Here I love the month of June. It marks the official start of summer - my favorite season - and despite the increasingly early onset of sweltering heat, at least in Texas, everything is in full bloom as the days get longer and longer. The first day of June also happens to be the birthday of one of my best friends, Brandon, who turned 40 this year. Our social circles are fairly intertwined, so it made sense that I got to see an abundance of my favorite people at his...
11 months ago • 6 min read
Finding Good through Flatwater **Apologies for the duplicate emails!* Welcome to FINDING GOOD FRIDAY! On the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month, I'll be sharing only uplifting stories to kick off your month and weekends the right way. Today is a good one... When my return back to life was just beginning after rehab, I started working for the wholesale giant, Costco, as a front-end associate. It was 2009, and the world was still recovering from the most severe financial crisis since the great...
11 months ago • 3 min read