NEED TO KNOW
\nAnthony Sanders wrote and posted a song to support his wife during a difficult job search after their move to ChicagoThe surprise TikTok quickly went viral, resonating with both legal professionals and couples onlineThe moment sparked new opportunities, reflection on relationships, and renewed confidence in her career<\/p>\n
After moving from San Antonio, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois to settle down with her husband, Nicolette Van Dielen set out to continue building her legal career.\n<\/p>\n
Van Dielen, 43, had spent years working as a staff attorney for Pima County in Tucson, Arizona, gaining experience across multiple areas of law. She later worked in appeals for the city of San Antonio, where she and her husband, Anthony Sanders, lived for six years.\n<\/p>\n
Still, Sanders, 33, says that despite his wife\u2019s experience and strong references, breaking into a new legal market felt daunting. Chicago, he explains, is a big city, and at one point the uncertainty became overwhelming.\n<\/p>\n
Anthony Sanders with his wife Nicolette Van Dielen.<\/p>\n
Anthony Sanders<\/p>\n
One night, Van Dielen worried that everything she had worked toward might never quite come together. Wanting to help in any way he could, Sanders \u2014 a pianist in a band \u2014 turned to social media. He posted on Instagram Stories asking whether anyone had connections in Chicago\u2019s legal world.\n<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when a friend, Madison Vine, suggested a different idea: turning the moment into a song.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came together incredibly quickly,\u201d Sanders tells PEOPLE exclusively. \u201cMy synthesizer was already in my office while I was tracking my album, so I turned it on. There\u2019s a bass sound I love, and once I started playing rhythms with my left hand, the structure revealed itself. It felt utterly casual.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
With his friend\u2019s encouragement, Sanders later posted a video of himself performing the song on TikTok \u2014 without telling Van Dielen first.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t know I was posting it,\u201d he says. \u201cI showed her after the fact, which was kind of a risk. She could\u2019ve been embarrassed. Thankfully, she thought it was a really nice gesture.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Since posting, the video has gone viral, racking up more than 1.4 million views and over 6,000 comments.\n<\/p>\n
Sanders says the response initially left him confused.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t understand what it was about this video that resonated so much,\u201d he says. \u201cReading the comments helped me understand.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Many of the messages, he says, focused not only on Van Dielen\u2019s job search, but on their relationship. \u201cIt seems like it reached both LawTok and relationship TikTok,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople said unbelievably kind things about me and about us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Anthony Sanders with his wife Nicolette Van Dielen.<\/p>\n
Anthony Sanders<\/p>\n
While he says the attention has been heartwarming, it has also prompted reflection. Looking back, Sanders says helping Nicolette felt like a natural instinct. Seeing the response made him realize that a lot of people don\u2019t feel that kind of support in their relationships \u2014 or they\u2019re longing for it.\n<\/p>\n
“That part made me sad,” he says.\n<\/p>\n
The attention has also brought tangible results. Sanders says the past week has been filled with interviews, emails and new connections and that Van Dielen is feeling more confident about her standing in the legal field. She has since had several interviews \u2014 some sparked by the video, others based entirely on her experience.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to feel seen by the person they love,\u201d he says. \u201cThey want to be spoken about positively in rooms they\u2019re not in. I hope this encourages people to love loudly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Anthony Sanders wrote and posted a song to support his wife during a difficult job…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-254042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}