Letter #1 - Who you are.
Jory Jude.
I still remember the phone call when I found out your mom was pregnant. I was laying on my friend Ali‘s couch in Pacific Beach California.
My best friend Lance, who you would later always emphatically call “Tio Lance,” was out grabbing breakfast, we had gone out the night before and we were planning on picking an apartment complex in downtown San Diego to move in together. Your mom and I had split after less than two months from our wedding reception.
I want you to know here and now and I want you to hear it from me directly, you come from two individuals that love you above everything else.
Two humans who are very different, but share an absolute pure love for you.
I want you to know that your mother is a good mother, she’s a good individual, I expect you to listen, obey, and respect her. She’s a great person, she was just never MY person. It’s important to me that you know that. One day you will fall in love. One day you will meet a girl who you will want to spend the rest of your life with, and I hope you learn to identify if that person is YOUR person.
I remember feeling scared for a split moment when I found out you were coming, and then I remember feeling a peaceful intense love. I hadn’t met you. It would be 8.5 more months before I would meet you, but in that moment I loved you. I knew I would do everything I could to protect you.
In this letter I want you to know where you come from.
I was born in San Diego California, my parents Otto Sr, and Nora, your grandparents who are heavily involved in your life today, are immigrants, Otto Sr worked at a Sony factory, Nora cleaned houses. We moved when I was young to Utah, they had decided they wanted to be closer to the church that they were members of, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons. I was the oldest of their children, five total; me, your aunt Jessica, your aunt Gaby, and the two that seem to be your best friends every time I call you, Isaac and Ian. Otto Sr started businesses and was very entrepreneurial in his mindset, Nora was a stay at home mom who later got into real estate. I played sports growing up. Initially focused everything on basketball, and then I fell in love with America’s pastime. The greatest sport on earth. Baseball. I grew up wanting to be an attorney, I wanted to fight for people, I wanted to dress in a suit and use my words and my love of public speech to speak for those that I felt could not speak for themselves. My career took a different turn as I ended up going into sales, I found a love for numbers, I found a love for economic behavior, and a love for the rush that seems to overcome me in the sales process. I was trained and developed in the skill of sales by a man very very dear to me. I’ll tell you about him later. To this day my career is in the sales industry, developing, training, strategizing, and maneuvering individuals and businesses to maximize sales and connect with their consumers. I’m a bit of a workaholic, but if I’m being honest a lot of it has to do with wanting to give you everything that I didn’t have and more.
I don’t know much about your mom‘s childhood.
I know she’s the youngest of 7. I know that she was born and for a time grew up in New Mexico, a small town called Farmington. Her parents have been together for years. She has 6 brothers and sisters who love you very much. You’re surrounded by cousins. I think over 20 now. Your mom is a really hard worker, when I met her she was a bartender at a restaurant chain, she was doing very well for herself, she was a little skinny brunette, beautiful, witty, and a lot of attitude. I remember thinking that she might have Italian in her because she was so quick on her feet. Your mom is a very caring person, I have seen her do things for you that could only come from a place of love. Your mom is definitely a jokester, I think you get your laugh and your giggles from her, she likes to make people laugh, she likes to make sure that people feel comfortable and are enjoying themselves around her. I don’t know much about your mom’s education, I know at one time she was studying to be a dental hygienist, I do know that your mom is a very smart woman. I think you get a lot of your smarts from her as well.
Your mom is a Utah girl through and through.
Nothing wrong with that, but there is a saying, you can take the Utah out of a girl, but you can never take a girl out of Utah.
She loves that place.
She loves you.
Your mom and I both have our faults, your mom and I both are very imperfect human beings, but your mom and I live and breathe for you. You are the very best thing that has ever happened to us. Your mother and I don’t agree on much, and that’s OK, but we will always agree and defend each other on the fact that you are the most beautiful thing that has ever come into our lives.
This is where you come from.
This is who you are.
This is letter #1
Dad.