2019 was perhaps the best year of my life. And, when I sat down to review everything I did and accomplished, I have to add that it must be one of the most productive years I’ll ever have.
Voyages
The thing that most defined this year was the sheer amount of travel I did, both for my work, but also the many personal trips I was able to take to so many new places. I took 59 different flights in 2019. For the record, 31 of those flights were on Southwest Airlines and the remaining 28 flights were split between JetBlue, Delta, American, Avianca, LATAM, United, Spirit, and Frontier. That last one will never be repeated again.
The biggest travel highlight was June and July, to a place I always dreamed of going: Peru. With my friend James O’Keefe and his fiancé Jessica, along with my friend Marshall Polston, we explored Lima (including Lima before the Inca and Spanish), Cusco, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon near Puerto Maldonado.
In May, I ventured to Guatemala to visit my friend Kyle Huwa, who was living there for about 10 months this year. We visited Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala City, the Old City of Antigua, and we hiked the Pacaya Volcano. In the process, I made a few new friends, including Rossmarry Cassola, who I later met up with during her long layover in December.
In November, I ventured to Mexico City for a long weekend with 12 of my friends in the Teneo network. Thanks to the leadership of our friend Joe Lindsley, we indulged in many boutique restaurants, visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and explored some mezcal distilleries just outside Mexico City.
Also, in November, I took a few days to attend the Bermuda Entrepreneur Summit, co-founded by my friend Matt Thomas. I was able to meet and learn from many of the speakers on the program and take in a historical tour of the oldest part of the island – via a rented bicycle!
2019 also found me back on The Rock Boat with many friends including Kristen Moran and Mark Sullivan. We departed from Tampa on the Norwegian Pearl and visited ports in Key West and Nassau, Bahamas, while listening to the sounds of many great bands including Sister Hazel, Andrew McMahon & The Wilderness, and a new artist find, Andrew Leahey, who I later interviewed for my podcast.
But that wasn’t the only cruise I would take in 2019. For work, I went on The National Review cruise, which included Canada and New England, starting in Montreal and ending in Boston, with port stops in Quebec City, Prince Edward Island, Sydney and Halifax in Nova Scotia, and Bar Harbor, Maine. Prior to the cruise, I went to Montreal two days earlier to explore the city which quickly became a favorite, especially after doing a historical bicycle tour and visiting the Oratory of Saint Joseph, a site first dedicated to Saint Joseph by Brother Andre Bessett, who was only recently made a saint.
Once I came into the port in Boston, I drove across the state of Massachusetts, dropped off my rental car in Queensbury, New York, and took an Uber about a 30-minute ride up to Whitehall, New York to meet my friends James O’Keefe and Matthew Tyrmand who had been sailing from Westchester County, New York up the Hudson River. I joined them for the final few days of their voyage, during the long Labor Day weekend, as we sailed past Fort Ticonderoga and into Lake Champlain. I disembarked in Burlington, Vermont, where I was held over for a full extra day due to a hurricane shutting down airports in Florida. I really enjoyed the sail (at least my fourth or fifth sailing trip on James’ boat) and seeing the beauty of upstate New York and Vermont in the first few days of September.
Some of my other personal travels this year included two days in Atlanta in April to attend Brawl for a Cause, a unique charity boxing event and an organization led by my friend Matt Thomas. I was fortunate to stay with my friends Dan and Virginia Dawson during that trip as well as see my friend David Healey.
In July, I spent two days in Key Largo, visiting with my friend Kyana Rubinfeld, who was living at her parents’ home there at that time. We kayaked through the mangroves at John Pennekamp State Park.
Spending quality time with family, especially during some great times for our family was also a rewarding part of 2019. In February, my brother Manny married his love, Tiffany, in a beautiful wedding ceremony on Pompano Beach. And, I stood by his side as his Best Man. It was a very proud moment for me and my family to see Manny and Tiffany begin a new chapter of their life together. My brother Tony and his wife Ann, and my niece Gabriella, who was about 16 months old at the time, also came, as did all of our family members in South Florida.
For Thanksgiving, I was able to visit Tony, Ann, and Gabriella in Santa Monica, California. It was probably my longest stretch without seeing my niece since she was born. When I visited, she was 25 months old, was walking, talking, and enjoying time with her Uncle Cisco. We took her to the California Science Center on the campus of USC. I was also able to get a glimpse of the Los Angeles Coliseum, the site of the 1932, 1984, and 2028 Olympic Games.
I was able to spend a full week in South Florida in December, staying with my parents at their new home in Boynton Beach, all the way through Christmas. We ventured down to Miami to see my grandmother; and we attended a party at the new Deerfield Beach home of my Uncle Joe and his new wife Irene. My cousin Kevin was also visiting (all the way from Okinawa, Japan) with his wife and two children. It was the first time meeting his second child.
My work for National Review Institute also demanded a lot of travel in 2019, but mostly to a handful of specific places that I visit a lot for our many events and my meetings with our major donors and prospective supporters. In 2019, work travel took me to Dallas 6 times, Houston 4 times, Austin 2 times, and College Station (TX) 2 times. I traveled to our headquarters in New York City 3 times, and I took 2 work trips to Atlanta, and one trip each to Charleston (SC), Raleigh (NC), and Oklahoma City.
For NRI, I also spend a lot of time in Florida, particularly in Palm Beach, where I am able to simultaneously stay and visit with my parents during those trips. This year, we brought NRI fellows Ramesh Ponnuru, Richard Brookhiser, and Andrew McCarthy to Palm Beach for intimate gatherings with our top supporters in the area. I also had donor visits in Naples, Vero Beach, and Tampa during the course of the year. In October, we held our annual William F. Buckley, Jr Prize Dinner in Florida for the first time ever; we honored Rush Limbaugh and Gay Gaines with the Buckley Prize, presented at the Breakers in Palm Beach, with more than 450 attendees and over $1.3 million raised for NRI. We also had an opportunity for our sponsors to participate in golf scramble or tennis round robin at the Breakers the morning of the dinner. Somehow I found myself playing tennis, on the job, at the Breakers, in Palm Beach. Could this job get any better?
Strangely enough, I was in Washington DC four times this year. The first was in March for our biennial NRI Ideas Summit, with one highlight was meeting James Buckley, the older brother of our late founder, William F. Buckley, Jr. Another highlight was a private dinner at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, where full members of NRI’s 1955 Society heard from NRI fellow Richard Brookhiser, who is a top historian of Washington and some of our nation’s other founders. I returned to DC in April as a participant in the American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network. While there, I stopped into the U.S. Department of Justice to see my friend Jesse Panuccio just weeks before he left his position as the Acting Associate Attorney General of the United States. I was able to get a really neat behind-the-scenes tour of the U.S. Department of Justice, seeing the place where much history has been made – and continues to be made!
I was back in DC again to attend the Teneo DC gala in May, where I also attended an “add-on” event to the Dominican House in Washington, DC. In October, I made another visit to DC and attended the Philadelphia Society’s fall meeting held in McLean, Virginia. This was also my first Philadelphia Society meeting as a member of their board of trustees and so I came in a little earlier to participate in the board meeting.
Voluntary Roles
I attended my first meeting of The Philadelphia Society as a graduate student in 2004 and later became a member in 2007. It is quite an honor to have been asked to join the board, where I will serve a term of two years.
At the tail end of 2018, I was also asked to serve on the Advisory Council for Turning Point USA, led by my friend Charlie Kirk. They continue to make monumental impacts on college campuses across the country as well as their influence in social media. In November, my friend Glen Gilzean and I drove Charlie from Orlando to Gainesville for his speaking event at the University of Florida. We encountered about 100 white nationalists who were spewing racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. This had come just 10 days or so after an NRI On Campus event at Texas A&M, where Jonah Goldberg and Congressman Dan Crenshaw were also met with about a half dozen young people who were spewing the same hateful rhetoric. This prompted me to write an article, “We Can – and Must – Defeat the Alt-Right.”
In December, I attended TPUSA’s Second Annual Winter Gala at Mar-a-Lago, the “winter White House” for President Trump. While the President was not there at the gala, we did get a chance to see him address TPUSA’s Student Action Summit three days later. It was my first-time seeing Donald J. Trump in person. He spoke for one hour and twenty minutes, bringing two students on stage to tell their stories. He was quite funny and direct. I now call him the Entertainer-in-Chief and plan to vote for him in 2020, something I did not do in 2016. While at Mar-a-Lago, I also witnessed TPUSA raise over $10.5 million in one night. It was quite astounding.
I also continue to serve on the board for AMIKids Orlando, an organization that provides rehabilitation and education programs for high school age youth who have intersected with the juvenile justice system. We are continuing to grow and build a great board. In October, I attended their 50th anniversary gala in Tampa, which also included two days of meetings with representatives from all the various local boards from across eight states. It was also great to have my friend Michael Long join us at the gala.
With my friend Glen Gilzean, I serve as the co-chair of the Teneo Florida chapter. In addition to attending the Teneo DC gala in May, we also brought our Florida members together for gatherings in Tampa in May and Miami in July. We are looking forward to our first meeting in 2020 to be held in Sarasota in early January.
My membership in Leadership Florida continues and I was able to attend the opening day of their 2019 annual meeting at Disney’s Grand Floridian hotel where we heard from the outgoing President of AEI, Arthur Brooks.
Podcasting, Speaking, Writing
2019 was the fifth calendar year in which I continued my Agents of Innovation podcast, where I interview entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists. While every guest was amazing, I had a special opportunity to interview one of my intellectual and spiritual heroes, Ravi Zacharias. With my friend Ruth Malhotra working for him, she was able to introduce me to Ravi and invite me to come back a month later and interview him in his studio for an episode of my podcast. I will never forget sitting across from him for 37 minutes and hearing the wisdom he bestowed us with, as he answered the questions I had for him about his own journey building Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. And, a few months later, they even aired my interview on one of Ravi’s podcasts, helping to reach an even broader audience.
In August, I was also invited to be the speaker for the monthly meeting of the Orlando Republic Women’s Network and developed a new talk which I later turned into an article, “Conservative Voices: From Russell Kirk to Charlie Kirk.”
I have stepped up a lot of writing, particularly with my travel logs, podcast interview recaps, and book reviews. In July, I started a monthly e-newsletter and published five editions of it at the end of 2019. If you are interested in subscribing to it, you can email me at fgonzalez1978@gmail.com. There are currently about 400 people subscribed.
Reading
In 2019, I set a goal to read 24 books and surpassed that goal by one book, completing 25. In total, I read 8,914 pages. I did 10 books by Audible – and those Audible books represented 4,653 of those 8,914 pages. The rest were read in print, either on my iPad Kindle/iBooks apps or in hardcover or paperback format.
Six of the 24 books I read were fiction, the rest were nonfiction, from a variety of categories: 5 biographies (one of those an autobiography); 3 history books; 3 memoirs; 1 political book; 2 religious books; 2 cultural books; 1 leadership book; 1 self-help book; and one travelogue with history mixed in. Not a bad collection!
It’s hard to pick a favorite book, but there are three I highly recommend for a broad group of readers: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo; Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams; and, Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. All the books I read are worth recommending because I rarely read bad books. I am very selective about the type of literature I consume. All 25 titles can be found in an article I wrote at the end of 2019, “Final Books of 2019: Starting With Why; Ending With Love.”
Also, I should note here that one of the things I enjoy about traveling is learning. There were things I learned during my travels that were unexpected and that led me to read further, sometimes before I visited a place, sometimes after. I started reading Rigoberta Menchu’s autobiography before I visited Guatemala and finished it on the way home. I started Mark Adams’ book, Turn Right at Machu Picchu and finished it the day before visiting the iconic site in Peru. I picked up a book about Brother Andre while at Saint Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal and finished it during the rest of my travels on the National Review cruise and while sailing in Lake Champlain. I also read Amity Shlaes’ book, Coolidge, shortly after visiting his home state of Vermont. And, the week I visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I read a book about her visitation to the indigenous man Juan Diego at that site just outside Mexico City. I also read the book, The Power of the Dog, a novel based on the U.S.-Mexican relations and the many elements of the drug trade and drug war since the 1970s, in conjunction with my trip to Mexico City.
I combine my travels and my reading and view all of it as combined educational experiences. We must be life-long learners and it can be quite fun to be one!
I am fortunate to be able to know some of the National Review writers first-hand as colleagues and hear many of their lectures and up-close conversations. These experiences stimulated me to read Richard Brookhiser’s book on John Marshall, Kevin Williamson’s book, The Smallest Minority, and two books by Victor Davis Hanson: The Second World Wars and The Case for Trump. My interest in our founder, William F. Buckley, Jr., continues to grow and this year I read two of his works, Elvis in the Morning and Nearer, My God.
Culture
Theatre
This year I had the opportunity to enjoy three theatrical productions. In March, I went over to Tampa to see Hamilton at the Straz Center with my friends Tom Gaitens and Marshall Polston. It was worth every penny we paid for it. And it was a lot of pennies. It was such a unique production – and it led me to finally dive into Ron Chernow’s monster of a biography on Hamilton on which the play was based. The more I learn about them, the more I continue to find even greater admiration for the men of our nation’s founding generation.
Also, in March, I didn’t have to venture far, just over to the Garden Theatre in Winter Garden here in the Orlando area to see a theatrical production of 1984 with my friends Eric Smith and Luke Strickland, who was visiting me in Orlando that weekend ahead of his trip to Europe. 1984 the play was quite intense!
In December, while on a work trip to New York City, I went to another Winter Garden Theatre, this one on Broadway to see Beetlejuice, which was quite hilarious! You might just die laughing.
Concerts
I’m a big fan of live music and this year I also saw my share of concerts. In addition to The Rock Boat, which includes hundreds of live performances over five days from about 30 artists, I also saw many live music performances here in Orlando.
In March, my friend Sean Gross flew all the way from Denver to join me, Eric, Joleen, Laurie Sparks, and Mike Sasso at The Plaza Theater near my home to see Candlebox. Sean and I first saw Candlebox during our senior year of high school in 1996 and it was great to have him join us. Later that evening, we even ventured over to Will’s Pub to catch the last few songs from my friends, The Currys, who were in town that night on their tour.
I saw live music performances in Orlando from other out-of-town artists I have had on my podcast: Matt Hires, Matt Brown, and JD Eicher all played locally at small venues, including house concerts. I also saw Slash who performed with Myles Kennedy at Hard Rock Live in August. My friend Eric and I saw Scott Stapp (former front man of Creed) perform there as well in October. And, at the end of that we also saw Alter Bridge (which is basically the other bandmates from Creed with Myles Kennedy) play at the House of Blues.
Over three years ago, I left the board of Rock by the Sea, a charity music festival in St. George Island, Florida. I had not been to one of their events since. But this year, I made my way to their Rock By The Sea “Down South” weekend event in Fort Lauderdale, which featured many great artists including Melodime, Steve Everett, and Josh Jenkins from Green River Ordinance. I was able to interview Josh for Episode 66 of my Agents of Innovation podcast. What an amazing year for some great live music and interaction with awesome musicians!
Movies
I don’t recall having quite as much time for movies this year, but two that I saw in the theater that stand out for me were: Run the Race, which was co-produced by Tim Tebow. It’s a story of two brothers who are dealt a lot of bad things in their life but are there for each other to help each other run the race, including holding on to their faith. I also saw They Shall Not Grow Older, which is Peter Jackson’s colorized documentary of World War I. The colorization and sound that was added to old footage from World War I really brought the people and time to life, as if you were experiencing it as they experienced their world, in full color. It was really amazingly well done.
Television
Nearly two years ago, I totally got rid of cable television, which probably helps give me more time for other things like reading, writing, podcasting, and traveling (not to mention the money I save!). However, I maintain an Apple TV box and stream television and movies on that (and on my iPad to watch while I’m traveling) through Amazon Prime and Netflix. This year I completed the last few seasons of The Americans, I also started The Sopranos(for the first time ever) and completed the first three seasons. I hope to finish the final three seasons in 2020. Two Netflix series I really enjoyed were season 3 of Stranger Things and also season 3 of 13 Reasons Why. I continue to be amazed at the writing in these shows and how they continue to deliver entertainment and thought-provoking narratives.
Orlando, The City Beautiful
While I certainly travel a lot, I also enjoy my time in Orlando. I continue to live and thrive in my Baldwin Park neighborhood. In 2019, I even became a member of Admiral Cigar Club, which is a 7-minute walk from my front door, and where my friends Sunny Aggarwal, Mike Sasso, Alex LaRue, Marshall Polston, and I frequently gather. I continue to work out at Rock Hard Fitness, a 15-minute walk from my front door, with great trainers like Max Dunley, Zach Rochette, and others. And I love the convenience of Publix, Tactical Brewing Company, coffee shops, and other restaurants all within a 5-10-minute walk. I feel like I barely drive – and I live in Orlando! I am also a 22-minute drive to the Orlando airport, where Uber and Lyft frequently take me. Downtown Orlando and Park Avenue in Winter Park are each also just 5-to-10 minute drive away.
This year, I attended four Orlando City games with various friends including Robert and Victoria Agrusa, Christian Minor, Sunny Aggarwal, Evan Ernst, Ryan Meerdo, Marshall Polston, and my tennis buddy Chris Cox. I also attended the soccer match between the U.S. and Canadian national teams, with Sunny and Evan.
My friend Hunter Thompson brought over a few of the kids from the SailFuture program to see the Cirque de Soleil performance. We had front row seats. About a week later, Hunter and his girlfriend returned to Orlando to dine with me at a Lebanese restaurant in Dr. Phillips, with a belly dancer and all. Later in the year, I got together with my friend Kevin Stewart at a Vietnamese restaurant off Colonial Drive. And in the waning days of December, I went to the Kobe Japanese restaurant for my friend Suki’s birthday gathering. All of these experiences reminded me of the great range of international flavors Orlando has. After all, more than 75 million people visit this city each year for a reason.
A month ahead of his wedding, my brother Manny came to Orlando for a “bachelor” weekend. We participated in the Florida tennis 1990s reunion led by our friend Brian Rosenthal, dining at the House of Blues restaurant and then taking to the courts the next day. We even got to reunite with one of our legendary tennis coaches from our junior days, Bill Clark and his wife Debbie. On the final day of that weekend, it was raining, so Manny and I headed to an indoor kart racing attraction to enjoy some fun entertainment.
My parents moved homes from Delray Beach to Boynton Beach. While they were in transition, they were “homeless” for about a month and they came to stay with me from about mid-May through mid-June. It was great to spend quality time with them, even as I was in and out a bit with some of my work travels. We were able to visit the nearby town of Sanford to watch an entertaining Memorial Day parade. And, on June 1, we went to St. Augustine for the day and met up with my Aunt Diane and my cousin Tiffany (whose birthday it was that day!)
Earlier in February, I also honored our veterans by attending a World War II tank re-enactment out in nearby Mount Dora for the second year in a row. My friends Val Particini, Marshall Polston, and NRI supporter Phil Leadbeater all attended as NR trustee Rabbi Rob Thomas led one of the tanks as a commander in the reenactment.
Theme parks abound in Central Florida and this year I was able to partake in a few experiences. When my friend Sean was visiting in March, we took a few hours one day before his flight to go to Sea World and ride all the roller coasters. Then, in early November, my friend Hunter and I took a few of the kids from the SailFuture program to the Howl-O-Scream event at Busch Gardens in Tampa, and my friend Trevor Eaton joined us as well.
I was in Tampa multiple times this year for both work and fun and was fortunate to reconnect with Trevor there earlier this year and was able to hang with him, Hunter, and my friend Michael Long several times this year as well.
Celebrating with Friends and Family
I enjoy celebrating the success and achievement of my friends. In March, I went to Sanford to attend the investiture ceremony of my friend, The Honorable Meredith Sasso, as she was appointed as a judge on the Fifth District Court of Appeals. In May, I attended the graduation ceremony of my friend Marshall Polston, where we watched him earn his bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Rollins College. I also helped his mom put together a wonderful graduation party for him to celebrate his achievements, and so many of his family and friends attended.
I also still continue to host many friends in my guest room who come through Orlando to visit for work or fun. In addition to my parents visiting in May and June, my brother Manny in January, my friends Sean in February and Luke in March, I also hosted Johnny Burtka, Mike Werner, Joe Russo, Christian Minor, Evan Ernst, and Trevor Eaton, who came here for the last day of 2019 to celebrate New Year’s Eve and ring in 2020. It has also been fun seeing friends visiting across town, such as getting together for lunch and mass with Jennie Varela when she was visiting from Lakeland in April and getting dinner with my friend JY Aubone in mid-December while he was working at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. Our friend Josh Record, who works at the USTA campus also joined us. I got on the court there a few times this year with Josh, and hope to a few more times in 2020.
The Journey Continues
2019 was a journey I could have never imagined. However, in the first week of the year I had run the Disney half-marathon, which went through Epcot and the Magic Kingdom parks. My friend Steve Bierfeldt comes in from New York to run this race almost every year and I joined him in 2019, just days before I turned 41 years old. We then ordered a gigantic ice cream sundae. That race and that sundae must have been emblematic of the year that was to come, with some experiences planned, and many others that just came my way. We prepared for a race, we completed it, and then we dived in and enjoyed the spoils of that ice cream sundae. And that’s how we probably should approach life. We have many days we must work hard, but we should enjoy the work we are putting our time into. We also have opportunities to be continuous life-long learners with books, podcasts, and other cultural opportunities, from travel to the arts. And we must also give of our time, for the many individuals around us, including family, friends, neighbors, and those in our community who could use a hand. Volunteering and charity work are essential components of living the American Dream.
but ran the race all year long
And I will just continue to be grateful for every day, especially every day where I can live the Florida Dream from here in Orlando, Florida. In the last month of 2019, I attended Beetlejuice on Broadway. One of the lines he says during the course of the play is: “Life is short, but death is super long.” As another year passes, we should keep this in mind as we approach every day that God has given to us. May we take heart of the boundless opportunities around us to continue to connect with others and explore the beauty of our world. And may we remember that the days are short here and the road we travel shouldn’t be our own road, but the road of the saints before us. May Saint Joseph, Saint Brother Andre, Saint Juan Diego, and Our Lady of Guadalupe continue to watch over us as our journey continues. May we continue to run the race.