Man how the mighty have fallen.

I'm not that old. But already I have a Golden Age. An age where I was young (hehe), in the best shape of my (still hasn't spanned that many years) life, and had all options available to me. I was 16. I had just won a half-marathon for my age group (I hate admitting that there were only 3 in my age category-but I came in almost an hour ahead of them). I was on a pretty good soccer team. I lived in one of the greatest states of the Union (Virginia! Old Dominion! and I'm out of nicknames). Etc.



You know, I started writing because yesterday was Columbus Day and in that glorious past Golden Age I would've been in a soccer tournament. Same for Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day. Occasionally Thanksgiving though usually the parent's didn't want to do one then.



And it was wonderful. The soccer, I mean. My whole family was involved in it, my brothers played different positions so I had no problems admitting that they were better in their respective positions. I knew when the various minor holidays were. Because then we'd either be in-town scrambling to get all three of us to our games or out-of-town getting one-on-one time with a parent.



And then I hit 18. We had just moved and I'd lost momentum in the whole college issue. And I decided not to pursue soccer. And I started working. And it turns out employers don't like to let employees off on holidays. So I started looking forward to the holidays because it meant time and a half. And a rush of people, which makes life more interesting.



Then I got married. And holidays meant fun family dinners and trying to spend equal amounts of time with both sides of the family.



And then I had kids. What holiday?



The exceptions to this are Thanksgiving and Christmas. Possibly Valentine's Day. But the rest usually go by unheralded. Like yesterday. I really didn't care that it was Columbus Day. I didn't get a day off, time and a half. No soccer tournaments for me. And that's ok. For now, anyway. I envision future years in which we're able to celebrate properly, and having two kids in soccer (or another sport) and having to travel to tournaments.



Forget about Damm reliving his sports dreams through his kids (dads tend to do that). It's gonna be me doing that ... but not just because of the soccer. Because of the holidays and all the memories.



Maybe I'll get to sleep in on a holiday one of these years. Now that would be fun.

And in 10 years I wonder what my Golden Age will be. Still 16? Or will it move up to 25? Though at the moment my 25th year has been occupied solely with crying children so I'm not sure it'll be remembered. I think I'll probably try to block it out. Hehe.