drag to scratch
Can I Kick It? (J. Cole Remix)
A Tribe Called Quest
I grew up working in a restaurant and on a tree farm in South Jersey — getting my hands dirty before I knew what a career was. Baseball was supposed to be my path. Three shoulder surgeries before my first high school game said otherwise. I reinvented myself into an all-state position player and earned a D1 scholarship, as someone who was never supposed to get there. Then it happened again, and I had to walk away for good.
A night sky on a remote mountain in Maine changed everything — I chased it into physics and astronomy, which opened the door to technology, and led me to starting and building companies. That pattern has never changed: something breaks, I figure it out, I come back even stronger. It's a pattern that defined my life. It's how I've always moved, and it's how I always will.
None of this exists without the people around me.
To the teacher who made me look up at the stars.
To Adam, who pushed me to go to Maine and changed the trajectory of my life.
To all of my friends old and new, truly being there like brothers my whole life.
To my family who always showed me what real love is.
To my niece and nephew, for showing me what matters in life.
To Sarah, who shows up every day for the version of me that's still becoming.
And to my parents and sisters, who backed me while entering worlds they have never heard of, just because they believed in who I was before I had anything to show for it.
© 2026 Giovanni Gussen
