Fifty Cups of Coffee #46: David Jayme
Date: December 30, 2024
Location: Zoom
How we know each other
David is my younger brother. He was born 10 years after me, so I was an only child for quite a while. Then he got to have about 9 years being the only child at home while I was in college, before he went to college. This explains a lot about us. 😂
What David is doing now
David is an Engineering Manager at Sprout Social. He lives in the Portland, Oregon area along with his wife Traci and their six awesome kids, ages 7 to 19 — AND two dogs, one cat, and one rabbit. It’s a full house!
Three questions
During these Fifty Cups of Coffee chats, I ask each person the same three questions. The reasoning behind each is as follows:
Question 1 – Social media makes it easy for other people to think that they know us, when truthfully, we all only see a small sliver of someone’s life and who they really are. This is the interviewee’s chance to share something that is important to them that, for whatever reason, other people may not know.
Question 2 – We all have fears, no matter who are are or where we are in life. This helps connect us and show we are all more alike than we are different.
Question 3 – I believe the answer to this question helps show each person’s true values, passions, and their why in life.
There are no right or wrong answers to any of these. I’m including each person’s answers in first person. Their answers have been edited from my notes for length and clarity, but these are their words.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about you?
“Ooh, I love this question. One thing I wish people knew more about me is that there’s a creative side that is highly untapped in my life, and it has been for the majority of it. Growing up, I always had this tech side of me. It was kind of instilled as a kid and it stuck. But then there was always that creative side. I played the clarinet for nine years of growing up, and then chasing my childhood sweetheart, I somehow landed in choir in high school and found a love of singing through there as well. And then in my senior year of high school, I just barely got a taste of the theatrical arts. I caught the bug and I loved it from there.”
“And you can see that especially between me and my wife, Traci, and in our kids, because they have certainly gotten those bugs. I love seeing it. And honestly, for me, the fulfillment is mostly satisfied in the fact that my children get to carry that forward and really get to pursue those interests and those passions at whatever rate, pace and direction that they want to individually. But there’s always been the side of me too that’s kind of missed that bug of the creative.”
“I have no regrets for the technology side of my life… but going down a purely technical path, there’s that creative side that I feel like I’ve never really been able to scratch. And so that itch has always remained. There’s still a little piece of me that I think misses being able to give to the world or to pursue for myself in that sense. But I do it in little ways. You’ll see that, for example, wherever I have those opportunities with work, I genuinely have this nerdy enjoyment of making presentations because there’s an opportunity there to get a little creative in how we deliver it.”
What is your deepest fear?
“It is the world that we live in right now. It’s a world that we don’t even know that we’re about to live in right now. That is my deepest fear. And more specifically, to me, my deepest fear right now is having my kids growing up in a world that is worse than the one that you and I had growing up and worse than the ones that we’ve had to this date. And as any well-meaning parent, I think that’s the legacy that we want to feel is that we leave them in this world better off than what we had it, right?”
“Giving them opportunities that are better than ours. You also know that our mom and dad immigrated to the US in the first place because they wanted us to have a better life than they did. I thank them to this day that is exactly what happened and has opened up the doors to be able to provide the same to our children. And that’s where it starts to suck, because now there’s factors outside of our control that are very much putting those opportunities at risk. And there’s only so much we can do about that… to suddenly see everything come to this sudden halt and go backwards to such a certain extent is disappointing as a human race. It’s concerning and bothersome for my kids and for them to not feel like they can be as included, whether that be based off of their sexual orientation or their race or their gender. And that’s hard.”
If you had unlimited funds, what would you do with your life?
“I think the first thing that I would do first and foremost is I would try to lean towards saving as much as possible because if it’s anything the world that we’re living in and life experiences have taught us, is that you never know what comes around the corner. It may feel like unlimited funds now, but what if it’s not unlimited funds tomorrow? I would maximize funds for my kids’ college tuition or saving for whatever life they choose to do once they grow up and ensure that they have a stronger start than I had coming into the world on our own.”
“And then from there, let’s talk about the fun stuff. Definitely a larger house. This is a very large family. But also part of that dream is to make sure each of my kids has their own room. They don’t have that right now. So from there, the other thing that it gives them is a place where they feel comfortable for their friends to come and hang out. One of the things that I cherish in my childhood that I think you got to see that too was that our house was the place where all the friends got to come and hang out. We were the place for fun on the weekends, for parties, or even in the darker times when some of our friends had less stable homes or had a place that they just didn’t feel as comfortable in their own home or wherever their living situation was. We were always a safe haven for that.”
“I want to travel more. It’s not that our kids have not traveled, but it’s been very limited, especially the more that we’ve had kids. As a bigger family, it does make things harder to do things like travel often. That is important to me, and it’s important to Tracy as well. So unlimited funds would absolutely enable opportunities to do that.”
“I would give more to important causes. Being able to do that I think is also important. And then… let’s go back to the large house. I’d throw in a large private gaming studio right into that big old house and have big old TVs and host gaming tournaments for the family and our kids’ friends to come over.”
Lessons Learned
Here are a few takeaways from our conversation:
- Everyone in my family has a creative side. This isn’t new news, but if you didn’t know our Senon-Jayme family well, you might not know this. Every single person I can think of in our extended family either has amazing talent and/or a passion for some sort of creative arts – whether it’s singing, playing an instrument (or several), dancing, acting, writing, painting, drawing, or the digital arts. I love this about my family, and it warms my heart to see different forms of creativity blossom in all of our children.
- Travel is a privilege. I am very, very aware of this, and sit in moments of deep gratitude every time I get on a plane or drive off to a new adventure, especially with my family. But what David said about traveling just being logistically different for a larger family hits that message home.
- The immediate future is a very real fear. David is definitely not the only person I have interviewed to voice his concerns about the future of our country with the new administration. Especially in relation to our children and how the policies and general climate of this new administration can affect them and their lives.
- Family is everything. David mentions how our house was THE house that our friends would all hang out at after school, on the weekend. It was the gathering place for friends and extended family. It was the safe landing spot for those going through challenging times; I remember cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends living with us for various periods of time throughout my childhood. I think that the importance of fostering and nurturing community – both of blood family and chosen family – was instilled in us from the time we were born, and I hope that his kids and my kids carry on that value. Given the current climate and way of the world, I think that value of strengthening our community is more important than ever.
Thanks for taking the time to chat, David!
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