Who is … everyone’s favorite game show host and Canadian-American?

As our nation reels from the most tumultuous and divisive election in recent history we are constantly reminded that this entire year has been fraught with relentless tragedy – from the COVID pandemic which has increased its bodycount to 240K Americans-and-rising to the children ripped from their parents and then had those same parents lost through our detention process. Throughout this ordeal we have lost several great (celebrity) souls including Chadwick Boseman to, ironically in the same week, Sean Connery and Alex Trebek – both of whom were my favorite nemeses of the satirical, irreverent, and always hysterical Celebrity Jeopardy skits on Saturday Night Live.

Trebek passed Sunday from a long bout with pancreatic cancer. This wasn’t a complete shock as we’ve heard him discuss his illness for the past year but the hit to our souls is no less powerful.

For many who, quite literally, grew up watching Jeopardy Alex Trebek has been an integral component in my life. I fondly remember watching home town heroes such as Frank Spangenberg on a tiny black and white tv sitting at my kitchen table in Queens NYC doing my high school homework after dinner. The Jeopardy time slot – every weekday at 7PM will forever be etched in my psyche as a sacred time … a time for exercising my mind through a myriad of topics.

Jeopardy was an intellectual focal point for all the rote memorization and countless books I read when young. The reason I studied in school wasn’t so much to “pass the next exam” or “lead up to a major” in school – it was “so I can kick ass in Jeopardy when playing alongside friends and family.

My love of Jeopardy continued through college when I recall stopping on my way home after classes at Top Dog on the south side of Berkeley. They always had it playing so people could enjoy a great bite to eat while challenging each other. Even when my emotional state rollercoastered due to emotional, familial, and academic challenges (aka: “the typical college experience at Cal”) Jeopardy kept me centered and fostered my love of learning. Alex Trebek was my lifelong guide through over 35 years worth of learning, watching, answering (more specifically – questioning), and feeling glee that I was able to remember basically a handful of facts about anything important on our small rock in the solar system.

But let’s not heap too much credit on Jeopardy as it was just a “simple’ game show. The real magic formula for this popular show was the man…Alex Trebek. Trebek was as quintessentially Canadian as they come – ever so gracious, polite, kind, and fair to those lucky few who had the chance to recite their dull anecdotes on stage during competition. He made people strive to be smarter, more diligent, and more competitive while also behaving themselves as he set a high bar for class and dry wit.

My dreams of finally meeting Alex Trebek would, sadly, end on the day of his passing. I had gotten farther this year than in others while trying out for Jeopardy – passing two online exams, an interview, and a mock game with other contestants but this year would prove ever so challenging to many dreams. We will always have 37 years worth of classic reruns!

Alex Trebek, as Melissa Chen tweeted, was “the last person to be universally-loved” in 2020

“What is Jeopardy?” – the question with the answer, “the reason we consume knowledge throughout our lifetimes.”