Column
Meet My People Behind OTR
Introductionsotr
I’ve been lucky.
Not in a flashy way. More in the sense that at key points in my life, God has put the right people in my life. Sometimes subtly. Sometimes directly. Yet always at the right time.
Off the Record (OTR) is where I’ve invited a few of those people to write weekly columns. Their stories. Their thinking. Their perspective.
Before they start posting, allow me to introduce them.
Jonathan Love
Jonathan has been in my life since I was a freshman in high school.
He saw me in my most formative years. Mr. Love was there when I got arrested at eighteen. It was him who helped get the obstruction of justice and possession charges dropped. In Fairfax County, Virginia in 2008, that was impossible.
Years later, when I landed my first tech job and was let go on the very first day because those very charges were dropped but not expunged… He was the one who answered the phone when I was in the parking lot, head on the steering wheel, tears running down my face. And yet again, and this time for the last time, he was there to help me through the court system.
Jonathan wants to see young Black and Latino men win. And he doesn’t just say that, he shows up.
Often, Jonathan is the first person I call when inspiration hits. He was the first person I called with this column idea for my blog.
He’s also the reason I wanted to become a lawyer, and the reason I didn’t. We were on a drive up to Deep Creek Maryland when he mentioned coding bootcamps. That suggestion changed my whole trajectory. Without it, I probably wouldn’t be a software engineer today.
He modeled what it looks like to carry responsibility without becoming bitter. How to show up for people. How to share success and succeed without ego. And maybe most importantly, how to fail, but never fail the same way twice.
A lot of how I think about legacy, discipline, entrepreneurship, and manhood traces back to conversations with him.
You’ll feel that in his writing.
Jose Antonio Olmos
Jose is my cousin on my mom’s side. Mil porciento Costeño. Former Colombian lawyer now a pastor in Virginia.
After I graduated college, when I was working in DC trying to make sense of the world through culture, economics, politics, and religion, he challenged me zoom out. I tend to analyze everything to death. Jose helped me balance my heavy analysis with personality and humor.
He also helped me reconnect with my Colombian side in a deeper way. Not just culturally, but philosophically. It balanced out the hyper-American, achievement-driven mindset I naturally lean toward.
To this day, he sends me daily scripture texts. Not in a preachy way. In a grounded, practical way. He has a gift for making the Word feel on time.
Written in Spanish con sabor. Expect storytelling you didn’t realize was shaping you until later.
He brings range, intellectually sound, yet not so pretentious.
Un Gran Cambo
Daniela Tep
Daniela has known me since sixth grade. That’s my twin. For real. The first day we realized we had the exact same birthday it’s been, “Hey Twin,” ever since.
She’s seen every version of me. The awkward ones. The overly confident ones. The bad judgment calls.
She’s always kept it real.
There are friends who are fun. And there are friends who will look you in the eye and tell you when you’re trippin’. Daniela is both. She’s been that kind of friend to me for over two decades.
Daniela the Metro to my Future. If Daniela don’t trust you I’m gon’…
She’s writing about life as a wife and mom. About relationships. About growth. What will make her writing special is the realness. No posturing. Just the truth.
Monica Abangan
Monica came into my life at a time when I was still carrying a boyish approach to adulthood. In how I presented myself. How I thought about relationships. How I structured my life.
She challenged that.
Finances. Standards. Relationships. Presence. What it actually means to prepare yourself for the kind of partner and life you say you want. I’m talking vision boards, budgets, calendars, wardrobe overhauls.
She also helped me loosen up. I can default to executive mode. Monica brought perspective, ambition minus the tension.
Monica’s career has allowed her to experience life in a unique way. She’s represented influential people you probably admire and has traveled the world doing it. She’s seen what works and what doesn’t.
Her writing will likely make you evaluate your own standards.
In a good way.
That’s the crew. Four very different people. Four very different perspectives. One thing in common: they all made me better. Now I’m holding this space for them.
A place to share what shaped them, the way they shaped me.