Post by Jonathan Donahue

The Memories We Make: A 1976 Road Trip and America's 250th Birthday. Fifty years ago, this summer, I was wedged into the back of an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon with three siblings, watching the country roll by through the window. It was 1976 — America's Bicentennial — and my family had set out on a three-week road trip that I still remember in vivid detail. We started in New York City, where we watched Operation Sail bring tall ships from around the world. From there, we traveled to Washington, DC, to visit cousins. We walked to the ground where the Revolution began, at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. We spent an unforgettable week at a rented lake house on Lake Mokoma in Pennsylvania. Every evening, we would drive to my grandparents' home in nearby Dushore to watch the Montreal Olympics. We saw Bruce Jenner win the decathlon. We cheered as Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers fight their way to boxing gold. We Nadia Comăneci scored the first perfect 10 in the history of Olympic gymnastics. I have thought a lot about why those three weeks stuck with me, and I do not think it was the destinations. It was the togetherness — the shared experience of being fully present. We were not scrolling. We were not scattered across separate rooms. We were in it together, mile after mile, evening after evening. That lesson has stayed with me in my work with leaders and teams. The bonds that hold a family together are not so different from the ones that hold a great team together. They are built through shared experience, through presence, and through showing up for the ordinary moments, not just the milestone ones. You build it in the accumulated hours of being there. America turns 250 — the Semiquincentennial — and I find myself thinking about all the families who will spend this summer making memories of their own. You do not need a three-week road trip to do it. Perhaps you will take part in the national celebrations underway in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, DC, Charleston, and California. Or perhaps you will keep it close to home — a backyard barbecue, a town parade, fireworks over the ballfield, a game of flashlight tag, chasing fireflies across the lawn, or a long afternoon at the local pool. The scale does not matter. The presence does. This summer offers something rare: with the World Cup coming to North America and many matches hosted right here in the United States, the whole world has a reason to celebrate alongside us. It is a fitting reminder of how connected — and how fortunate — we are to share this remarkable world. My encouragement to you, whether you lead a family, a team, a company, or a community: be there for it. Put down the phone. Pile everyone into the proverbial station wagon. The miles will fade from memory. The moments will not. Happy 250th, America. Leadership Effectiveness Jonathan Donahue #4thofJuly #FamilyMemories #Roadtrips #WorldCup #America250