Disclosure: There are no affiliate/referral links. This box was paid for by me.
Jeremy Lin is an athlete that my 16 year old son, T, admires. I purchased the box for him.
Subscription: Jeremy Lin Quarterly Box
Cost: $75.00 – You are not charged until the box ships.
What to Expect: Quarterly announced that the theme is “off-season” fun.
Notes: Quarterly boxes have been slow to ship. You can email them to find out when a box may ship. Boxes may show up on the Best of Quarterly for purchase.
We are usually a fun, quirky blog. Once in awhile, a box will touch us. This box is one of those boxes. Click away if you are having a bad day. We’ll still be here when you come back.
This post is written by me from the point of view of my 16 year old son. You’ve been warned!
My 16-year-old son opened up the box. All I could think is I spent $75.00 for this? The proceeds benefit the Jeremy Lin Foundation that serves youth and provides hope, empowerment, and leadership development. OK, it doesn’t sound as bad. Now I am going to share the box from T’s point of view.
Adidas T-Shirt: Jeremy Lin has a logo t-shirt with Adidas. It is the Jeremy Lin Foundation Logo. The top part contains his initials “JL” and the bottom is the number “7”. He played under the number seven for the Golden State Warriors. I do not know if that is why the number seven is part of this logo.
One of the reasons that T identifies with Jeremy Lin is because of the discrimination he faced in playing basketball. T is biracial. He is half-Mexican. He has been subjected to taunts such as “run back to the border” on his cross-country/track team. Jeremy Lin inspires him because he continued his athletic career despite what people said to him.
Sheet of Stickers: The spoiler for this box was the stickers. Both J and T love the stickers. I don’t understand it, but the box is not geared towards me.
Bandana: Jeremy Lin wore bandanas over the summer because he wore his hair longer. T thought it was cool.
EPA Made Ocean Candle: EPA Made is a positive work community for single mothers in East Palo Alto, CA. It’s a soy candle that has scents of orange blossoms and musk. The musk makes it masculine enough for T’s tastes. He loves candles and is happy that one is included in this box.
Another reason that J admires Jeremy Lin is that he is strong in his faith. The candle label shows the Jeremy Lin Foundation Logo and a Bible verse. Having faith is not a popular thing in high school and is another thing that sets T apart from some of his teammates. J admires how Jeremy Lin shares his faith.
DOTA 2 MicroPlush Blind Item: Jeremy Lin has been playing Dota 2 since he was a sophomore in college. He attended the Dota 2 Championships this year. T prefers the Funko Pop figure that he received in the first box.
Collage of personal pictures: The collage is made out of personal photos not released to the media. T loves it. He also loves the hair.
Rap on a USB Stick: Jeremy Lin has been using rapchat for fun. He also uses it practice his Chinese. He did a rap about the items in his box and his excitement about his upcoming basketball season. T loves this. Some of his peers felt he should be able to rap based on his skin tone. Fortunately, he can from listening to Christian rappers. Yes, they are out there. Lecrae is one of T’s favorite Christian rappers. One time T rap me a song he wrote about his frustrations of how his peers judge him because he is half-Mexican. It made me sad. Sometimes I feel that we should not have moved here. He says it was a good choice. I am sure T is exploring rapchat.
The bandana is missing because T left it on the table.
Verdict: The box resonates with T. He feels it is worth the price. He enjoyed reading the letter and finding out why the items are selected. The collage is his favorite item.
What do you think of the Jeremy Lin Quarterly box? Share below and anything else on your mind.
Like you, I am not the audience for this box (except that candle – love it!), but I enjoyed this review and it touched me. I am so sorry to hear about the racism that T has experienced – clearly there was jealousy about his mad Track skills… and glad that there is a role model like Jeremy Lin to help T realize he’s not alone and that the comments from those jerks don’t mean anything in the long run. I know what it’s like to let negative comments hurt my self esteem and I pray that T will ignore it better than I did. He sounds like a wonderful young man who is very thoughtful and caring as well as smart and athletic.
Heat – Thank you for your comments and prayers..
Sub Bella, it sounds like you have two awesome kids =) I am biracial and come from a Midwestern town, and mostly have not experienced discrimination. I’m occasionally a little worried about it now in rural areas, but I was a quiet female who always had her nose in a book, so people didn’t bother me in high school as much as perhaps an athletic teenage boy would be. Fortunately, he’s going off to college soon! I hope he finds a wonderful, diverse place!! I’m actually always jealous of diverse groups of friends, or just friend groups… my cat is my bestie… #sigh
ps: This box is not for me, and I had the same thought–$75 for this?
Everything Onderria said above was better than I could have said although I grew up in Jersey and moved to the midwest. The discrimination I had was from mistaken as a latino/white mix rather than my asian/white mix (like that made it better when I corrected my background WT!?!) You would figure with NYC as my backyard biracialness would have been more accepted for the most part. It probably is more now than then.
Onderria now you know you have a diverse friend over here *waves*
Hello my diverse Pnut pal! I am leaving a million comments tonight because for some reason I had thought you guys were being super quiet, but it turns out I wasn’t getting the response emails.
I get all sorts of funny inquiries on my ethnicity–Persian was the best for me and my sister once got Korean. I’ve never really minded, and I actually like talking to people about their ethnicities. However, Sub Bella, the ethnicity picking has always infuriated me!! I am not just black or just white, so why should I have to pick one?? So that schools or hospitals get more funding?? BS. White people see me as black, and Africans see me as white, whereas black people give me this weird nod like I’m in a secret society. Black girls always check out my hair in this amusing exchange where we asses what the other female has done, and smile approvingly. I sort of love that part.
PS: Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix series is great! It’s super diverse, well written, and feels real. I like that they touch on racism, feminism, and dating, and my favorite line is “Is Mindy Kaling real???”
After I tire of Property Brothers whenever I can (my Pnut people approve along with their favorite cartoons) I will have a looksee at Aziz Ansari at night although I am not sure about him because when I had energy to watch TV at night I would watch stand up and he did not keep my attention span. I will give him another shot for you and for straining to watch the first episode of Breaking Bad a few times just because everyone said I had to watch it … that first episode was slow but after that it was awesome and awesomer then I appreciated that first episode. I will definitely binge on House of Cards when that comes out regardless. And that is my randomness for this morning.
Is Mindy Kaling Real? Hahahahahaha
Ohmygosh Pnut have you watched Playing House? I didn’t like Property Brothers till I saw this scene of them in Playing House. Here’s the writers/actresses describing the scene bc I can’t find it.
http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/video/jessica-st-clair-and-lennon-parham-talk-shooting-a-sex-scene-with-the-property-brothers/2887949
Ohh! Found it! Okay… turn down the lights, here’s Drew and Jonathon in a woman’s daydream.
Oh funny. I do not see the brothers that way. They are probably too hairy for my taste if I did crush on them lol. But it is funny. It is funny though since we no longer had cable since kids came and depended on Netflix and NBC the twins are featured at different segments once in awhile mostly on the Today show so that is where the loyalty came up.
I was a six feet under watcher and I tried to watch the two brother’s shows when able. That is Dexter (closed my eyes on the gory scenes) and I think it was The Darlings with the other one.
I might say funny too much without proper caffination…
I don’t really crush on them, I just had no interest in watching their show till I saw that bit, watched the show, and liked their sense of humor. I luuuurved Dexter though! It’s one of the few long running shows I actually watched and liked all the way through! I usually get bored in seasons 2-3 and stop watching or slog through [Revenge, Pretty Little Liars, New Girl, Six Feet Under, Downton Abbey]. I prefer how Brit shows run with a few episodes for 1-3 seasons [Americans ruined Downton Abbey–it was only supposed to be 3 seasons].
Onderria – Hugs. Thank you 🙂
Pnut – Hugs to you too. He hates it when people ask or guess at his biracialness. It’s going to be interesting how things go next week. I marked on all our visits that he is Hispanic because there is nowhere to mark biracial on the college visit forms.
Hmmm… I always check both white and Asian or Pacific Islander. But if I am forced to pick one I pick Asian/Pacific Islander. I would pick both if he is able to especially if he wants to avoid questions and limited the inquiring eyes. I wonder if it is the way people ask your son. People always give me the look like they are trying to figure it out so I always take it as more of curiosity. I am used to it happens very often that I find it is part of my life. I like it when people think I am Hawaiian those are usually the well traveled ones who actually have visited there. But most think that I am a Latino/Hispanic mix, the Jews can identify me as a Jew (but I am technically not kosher though my father is Jewish they always laugh at that as a Jew is borne from a Jewish mother), and Filipinos can usually identify me correctly.
As a sidenote where I am originally from (Bergen County, New Jersey), the Jewish men would marry the Catholic Filipino women and have cute kids like me! So this was the most commen bi-racial makeup in the area and it has been accepted for the most part.
I noticed on the applications that you could pick more than one race. It would not allow me when registering online for the visits. I do think people are curious. A lot has to do with the way he wears his hair. When he wears it short in the front, he looks Latino. I think it is because you can see his full forehead. When he wears it longer, he looks almost Italian. People have thought he’s latino, black, Asian (nothing specific), or Black irish (mainly because people think I am Irish). Hispanic people always recognize him. It makes him feel good.
Kids want to fit in and know who they are. People don’t come up to me and ask about my ethnicity. They do to him. I think it bothers him that in a sense he doesn’t have an identity that is easily recognizable. Then they are always surprise when they see that I am his mom. That bothers him too.
I 100% get that kid came out of you!?! to my mom who is very dark complexioned Pinoy!
T will be fine college will help him discover himself 🙂
Goodness. I feel so bad for J! You know, kids can be just horrible. But. His story- and admiration for JL- Well, that’s got college essay written all over it. Overcoming adversity and the like. Where I’m from, being biracial isn’t unusual, but some ignorant kids still liked to really point it out- but they were usually the same kids who liked to point out when someone was fat or less fortunate. I used to tell them to be more creative with their insults- No one likes a pedantic insult. At least they could be clever. People get better, and I’m sure those experiences will help J in the future. Sounds like you are raising quite the wonderful young man.
Great review. It’s rare that a sub box review makes you think about the bigger picture. Great stuff.
That’s a great idea about the college essay. I’m not ready for T to go to college. I tell him that these boys are goig to be in a world of shock when they go to college. Thank you for the compliment 🙂
I am so glad we have a voice to be able to really review this box. Otherwise it wouldn’t be authentic!!!
PS I am in the wow stage of your mom ability!!!
It’s authentic for him! I try to persuade him to write the review, but it’s too close to his heart. He’s been reading the comments on his phone. Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake moving out here. He says not. Our old area was quite diverse. It took us a while to get used to this area.
Don’t be in the wow stage yet LOL. Let’s see where he is when he is an adult. College is the next big obstacle. It’s clear from talking to him that he wants to feel comfortable in his own skin at college and not have people stare or wonder about him as much as they do now.