It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the time of the year you get to enjoy festivities and holiday cheer with friends and family. It’s a time of year where you get to both give and receive.
It may be this way for some, but let’s get real.
Christmas can be tough. Some are blessed to have family, some don’t have family at all. Some grow up in families that don’t celebrate Christmas. Christmas can be a tough holiday for many.
I (we) have family. But my wife is pregnant so we’re staying home this year. I saw family for Thanksgiving, so in some ways, it feels good to get a break from the inevitable chaos that comes with a large family. But I’m often sad during the Holidays. I have a complicated relationship with Christmas. I became chronically ill just before Christmas.
Christmas to me feels like an anniversary of chronic illness. It’s a reminder that another year has passed and I’m still struggling. I’m sure others can relate to this even though I feel like I’m completely alone. For the past decade, Christmas has made me sad year after year.
But I have to remember the positive things. I have a daughter coming in February. I love and appreciate my wife. I appreciate my family. I appreciate all the donors who have supported Genetic Genie throughout the years. These are the things that count.
And for Genetic Genie, I have made a commitment. I’ve committed to keeping Genetic Genie updated. It now works with data of all types, including the data that’s going to power the future of genomics — Next Generation Sequencing data. We launched GenVue Discovery. And while GenVue Discovery may not be as discovered as I hoped (no pun intended), I know we launched something novel and groundbreaking even if the majority of users don’t know what it is or how to use it yet.
But for the New Year, I am not only going to commit to my own family, I am going to commit to the people that use and have used Genetic Genie. Unfortunately, I generally don’t get to see the faces of the users and donors, but I’ll refer to them as my Genetic Genie family.
As a commitment to the Genetic Genie family, panels will be updated and new panels will be created. It’s been clear that users want panels that have clear content that explains what they are looking at. And we’re going to go above and beyond to provide this. We want to have more diverse science-based panels with the best content. And I personally want Genetic Genie to stay free despite some pressure to do otherwise. The two principles that I don’t want to compromise on are privacy and accessibility. If we charge, Genetic Genie is no longer accessible to everyone.
After panels are created and updated, we’ll continue to work on our exciting GenVue projects.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Kyle and the Mrs.