2024 Reflections

2024 was a big growth year for me, both personally and professionally. I worked hard, played hard, won tennis tournaments and new business deals, and somehow did all of it without writing a single blog post. That will change this year, though. I’m planning on working harder, playing… about the same amount, winning more tennis tournaments and even more business deals, and writing a lot more.

My life continues to be a big adventure, and I’m grateful I have the ability and drive to push away the mundane and strive for bigger goals. None of it would be possible without the love and support from Mom, Dad, Isaac, and Jadyn, and through the highest highlights and toughest lows of this year, I’m glad to have them all behind me (and in front of me when they need my support).

Spring in Colorado

I spent a lot of time in Breck early last year, with a lot of fun events happening. In March, Jadyn competed in her final snowboard competitions, with boardercross races on the NorAm tour at Steamboat. I enjoyed seeing old competitors and friends racing the event, and obviously cheering Jadyn on was the best part. She finished 12th and 11th the first two days, but qualified for the final on day 3 against a very stacked heat of other riders. Watching her compete is always exciting, and it continued to made me super proud to see other teams and coaches give her respect for her riding one more time, racing against a field of the top American and Canadian girls (over 30% of the competition has competed in a pro race now!)

I ended up riding Steamboat more than I ever had, because after Jadyn’s week of training and competitions, we drove right back over the next weekend for Slash and Burn Banked Slalom, one of the best snowboard events of the year.

Since 2018, we’ve raced Slash and Burn every year (except 2021 when it was canceled), and it’s become an annual tradition! This year’s course was fast and sketchy as usual, but so fun. It wasn’t my best year results-wise (I finished 30th out of around 120 in Open Class), but then again, I do live in Texas now.

In May, I once again flew to Breck, this time for Jadyn’s high school graduation! It’s hard to believe all three of us are adults now, but here we are. Grandma and Grandpa Cortez and Aunt Nettie flew up to celebrate with us, and it felt like a full week of celebrations for Jadyn, with the main street parade, graduation, and her grad party! Grandpa and I even rigged a pulley system for the piñata, which was definitely the highlight of the grad party!

Concerts!

This summer, I saw more live shows than any previous years (probably due to being in the live music capital of the world, but idk). In May, I saw AJR in concert for the fourth time – they always put on an amazing show with the most theatrics and production I’ve seen put into a concert. I even got to meet Ryan, their pianist, after I randomly bumped into him downtown the day before their concert! In June, I got a cheap, last-minute ticket to see NF, and was able to get close to the front row. Before flying out to Colorado again, I also got to see one of my favorite bands, X Ambassadors, at a small venue downtown. Seeing bands close up and personal is such a cool experience! Back in Summit County with the family, we all went and saw KALEO, who I’d been waiting to see for several years after they canceled the concert I had tickets to back in 2022. In terms of raw musical talent, they definitely stood above anyone else I saw this summer, and it’s always so fun to hear songs I listen to daily live.

Finally, I also was able to see Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors during my July trip to Colorado for the Keystone tennis tournament. Drew gave a phenomenal concert at the Dillon Amphitheater – absolutely the best free show I’ve ever attended!

Racquet Sports

One of my New Years goals was to win another tennis tournament, and after finishing runner-up in a very competitive 4.0 doubles draw (our first match went three hours!) at Horseshoe Bay back in April, I was hungry for a win.

A tennis win would have to wait, though. I found myself playing in several pickleball tournaments with my friends Kai and Enoch, and I ended up taking my first pickleball singles tournament win at the start of June, after a grueling 11.5 hours of play in triple-digit temperature. That morning, Enoch and I had finished 5th in 4.0 doubles, and I knew the afternoon singles draw was going to be an endurance battle. Thankfully, I had brought seven spare shirts (I used them all), and was able to sprint to the bathroom between every game to soak myself in cold water and lower my body temperature, which ended up making the difference for the final few games, with my opponents looking like they were feeling the heat a lot more than me. I won the gold medal match with a comfortable lead, 21-15.

Earlier in the summer, I had made plans to fly up to Breck again for the Keystone Classic tennis tournament in July. In 2022, I lost in the singles final with an unfortunately-timed sprained meniscus and I missed the 2023 event, so this year, I was determined to win. I played every day for two weeks before flying up to Colorado, scheduling matches, clinics, tournaments, and going out to hit serves by myself if I couldn’t find any of those to do that day.

The Keystone tournament was definitely the best weekend of my year so far! I won my first singles round 7-5, 6-4 in the closest match of the tournament, and proceeded to win the next three rounds fairly easily to take the singles draw win. In doubles, Dad and I survived a semifinal match after losing the first set 2-6 to win 2-6, 6-2, 10-3 in the tiebreak. I knew we’d have to change something for the final, and since Dad and I aren’t always the most positive teammates, I thought that would be a good place to start. “Abundance of positivity” was my theme for our finals match on Sunday, and it worked. Battling tough opponents, we stayed positive through every unforced error, double fault, and broken serve, with high-fives after every point. We barely lost the first set 6-7 in a tiebreak, but managed to pull out a 7-5 second set. With family and friends watching, we decided to play out a full third set instead of a 10-point tiebreak. It was a close one, but we ended up winning the set 6-4 to win the tournament!

While I often get motivated by both negative and positive reinforcement internally, negativity doesn’t really work when you have a partner that you’re depending on and is depending on you.

In late September, I won my first singles 4.0 USTA tournament at Horseshoe Bay! It was one of those weekends where everything just lined up. My first round opponent was rated so much higher than me I didn’t think I had much of a chance. Dad had texted me before the match “You can find a way!”. Somehow, I did. After getting destroyed 2-6 in the first set, something clicked in the second set and I won 6-1. It ended up coming down to the wire, and I was down 5-8 in the tiebreak before winning 11-9! The semifinal went the same way, and I won in the tiebreak once again 10-7.

My final opponent was very solid. Many years of match experience, and lots of tournaments under his belt. It felt like the match could’ve gone either way at any second, with both of us taking the lead over and over again. Luckily, I was playing close to the best I ever had, and I won the match (and the tournament) 6-4, 6-3. New Years Resolution complete! (I almost won doubles, too, but after we won our semifinal, my partner informed me he’d have to forfeit the final due to scheduling)

Besides those three memorable tournaments, I also won a tennis doubles event with snake-draw seeded partners in September, and a doubles pickleball tournament with Enoch down in Dripping Springs, which had a $150 cash prize!

In November, I returned to Horseshoe Bay to try and defend my 4.0 singles title. I made it through to the final after a tough first round and semifinal against my own doubles partner, but lost a rain-filled final against the same opponent I beat in the final back in September.

I played one final pickleball tournament at the end of November, a singles round-robin event. I had invited Enoch to play, since we’d played multiple tournaments together throughout the year. We both entered the 4.0-4.5 draw, and, after both recording records of 5 and 1 through the first six rounds, we faced each other for the gold. Unfortunately for me, he had me figured out that day, so I had to settle for a lower spot on the podium.

This was the most tennis I’ve ever played in a year, with over 65 matches recorded. I won several UTR Flex League seasons, and definitely improved my game!

Traveling – Dallas, OKC, and Minnesota!

In July, I took a road trip up to Oklahoma City to go visit Isaac, who was doing door-to-door sales with Vivint over the summer. I stopped in Dallas to see Grandma and Grandpa Cortez on the way up, and road tripped back down with Mom and Dad from OKC to Dallas to see family again! It was my first time back in OKC in a while, and we had a great time seeing Isaac and hanging with the Brooks family again! I also got to see the Town Lake firework show on July 4th from very close up, after deciding last-minute to paddleboard out on the lake!

When I got back to Austin, I committed last-minute to flying up to Minnesota for my friend Leo’s wedding at Castaway end-of-August. I met up with Ty and Collin, two friends I met when I worked Summer Staff in 2021, at the airport in Fargo, North Dakota (new state for me, 9 to go), and drove that night all the way to Detroit Lakes, MN. The wedding was an amazing time, and celebrating that night with everyone was even more fun!

Work – Sales!

This year I’ve been doing sales and marketing work for an AI video monitoring startup, Camio, contracted through Palm Venture Studios, a venture capital studio investing turnaround capital for early-stage startups. Getting laid off in December 2023 from Atmosphere was unfortunate, but catalyzed my next move to a better company with a much better setup.

I’ve been primarily selling an automatic tailgating (unauthorized entry) detection solution to 24/7 gyms, and, in stark contrast to my last job, I comprise the entire sales team. After getting hired, I built out our CRM system and sales processes, writing my own call scripts and cold email copy, using my sales and marketing knowledge to give myself a fast start. In addition to sales, I’ve been helping supplementally with marketing efforts, creating graphics, managing social media postings, and strategizing around email marketing. It’s been an enjoyable last year working with Camio, and I’m looking forward to another great year!

Fall in Austin with Family

This year I finally got to spend time with the family down here in Austin! Dad was in town for almost a full month from the end of September through mid-October for business opportunities, and I enjoyed hanging with him back down in Texas. At the end of September, we drove down to San Antonio for a weekend tennis tournament, which was a fun trip – I got upset in the quarterfinal tiebreak after coming back to win the second set, and Dad lost in the 40+ singles but won the consolation draw.

Dad was also in town for my birthday! Kai and Dad took me to Café No Sé on South Congress for breakfast, and in the evening, Dad and I played a tennis clinic downtown. The rest of the family showed up a couple days later, and as we usually do, we packed in a ton into just a week and a half. Isaac even stayed a couple more days at the end– We went to a Marvel Cinematic Universe Trivia Night (finishing second), and that weekend, we went to F1 at Circuit of the Americas and saw Eminem perform for 100,000 people!

After everyone left, I spent November in Austin before heading up to Breck for the holidays. A couple highlights were listening to Cliff Knechtle speak at UT, spending time with the Burnettes for Greg’s birthday, driving out to Sargent Beach, TX last-minute for Thanksgiving with the Deweys, attending local entrepreneur Codie Sanchez’s live book launch event dressed in a Canadian tuxedo, and seeing Uncle Mike, Aunt Thu and Olivia during their visit to Austin!

Snowboard Season Kicks Off

Thanks to having a more flexible job this year, I was able to fly up to Colorado the week before Christmas and spend some time with everyone. The weekend before Christmas, the US Grand Prix and X Games Street Style came to Copper, so we got to watch some friends compete with all our favorite pro snowboarders.

On Christmas Day, we did our annual family Christmas ride day at Copper! We went out with our friends the Heflins (plus my friend and old Team Summit teammate Akos!), and had one of the best days of the season riding all around Copper. In between work meetings, I ended up getting a lot of time on snow, with some really great snow days scattered in!

2025!

We’re already two full months into 2025, and it seems like so much has already happened! I’m eager to work hard this year and make some big moves hopefully resulting in lots of money, while also staying in shape with tennis, bouldering, the gym, and hopefully a few more snowboarding days sometime in the spring.