The name of this newsletter is the Righteous Endeavor
A bit of background
The year was 2020. We were all in the midst of a global pandemic, and frankly, still recovering from Pilot Pete’s Bachelor season. I watched Claire and Tayshia take La Quinta with great delight and relief, but I couldn’t help but miss my friends, and all the wine and jokes we used to share each Monday. I decided to start a bachelor fan league (okay, fine, two bachelor fan leagues) for Matt’s season as a way to stay connected about what really matters: ABCs most successful reality franchise. I started to write some recaps along with the standings because my boyfriend (Greg) only gets half my jokes and my cat (Larry) is sick of hearing them. Some friends said nice things about these jokes and thought that maybe other people would like to read them too, so here we are!
The name of the league, and thus, the newsletter, comes from one of my favorite moments of Tayshia’s season. All the hometown dates were wonderful, and it was a real treat to see families together when so many of us are far apart, but Ivan’s family stole the show (not that Antonia from Top Chef didn’t try…). As if his niece’s lumpia recipe wasn’t enough, we got his sweet sweet parents and his brother Gabriel, who showed up late as a surprise for Ivan looking flossy as hell. Ivan cried, Tayshia cried, I cried! We knew from earlier episodes that Ivan and Gabriel are incredibly close, and that Gabriel’s experiences while incarcerated made a huge impact on Ivan’s life and his interest in prison reform (read that sentence again and delight in the fact that it happened on this historically tone-deaf and problematic show). What we didn’t know was that Gabriel has a lovely southern drawl and turns of phrase that I simply cannot get enough of! I thought “when I got dropped in the water, you guys had to learn how to ride the waves as well” was a bit wordy, so I pulled from his other excellent quote “I’m just grateful I was able to show up to support him in this righteous endeavor.” Looking for love (even in all the wrong places) IS a righteous endeavor, and hopefully recapping that search is as well.
Cheers to the journey,
Sydney