I’m sitting in a Starbucks in New Orleans catching up on work before an appointment. Specifically, I’m at the Starbucks on the corner of St. Charles and Canal. The last time I was here was when the Gators played West Virginia in the Sugar following the 1993 season – and that’s how this post started… reflecting on that trip. At first I started wondering why I haven’t been here more often. I’ve been to the other major southern cities like Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta about 50 times since then. I’ve been to other very close cities like Pensacola and Lafayette at least a half dozen times. Heck, I’ve been to Dubai more often than New Orleans. (Full transparency, I came to Jazz Fest in 2004, but I stayed with my friend Mike Greaves in Mandeville and never made it to the French Quarter.)
Yeah, that’s how my thoughts started. Unfortunately, those pleasant reflections were interrupted by math. Wait a minute - that was 1993? What? That was 23 years ago? No way – that must’ve been 2003 – I’ve got my decades wrong. No, that was 1993. There’s no way – I remember every detail of that trip. I remember spending almost every waking moment in the French Quarter, New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street, my friend Jason Holeman having to fly home at 6:00 am to start his first job in Miami the day after the game. I remember staying with my Merritt Island friend Darren McGowan who had just graduated from Tulane, and Rod Whited’s parents having a hotel room on Bourbon Street. Outside of this Starbucks is a huge CVS –it was my landmark to know we had arrived in the Quarter. I also remember us killing West Virginia. It was awesome – and it really was 23 years ago.
Here’s the scary part. Here’s the part that made me start to write this post, with the intention of getting it out of my thoughts and onto paper. Whether I post this or not is irrelevant – it’s out of my head. Here it goes: In 23 years from now, I’ll be 70. Yep, that’s right. Yesterday I was hanging in the French Quarter watching the Sugar Bowl and tomorrow I’ll be 70.
I don’t need to write about how fast it goes, how we need to savor every moment, etc. You already know these lessons. However, do you feel it? You know how fast our lives come and go, but do you feel it? Until you feel it, you won’t act. Right now I feel it. All the bumper stickers that tell me that life is short disappear as background noise. My math problem I just calculated won’t disappear – I feel it.
So, I’m not going to tell you the same thing you can read on your Great Aunt’s Facebook posts. I’m going to ask you to perform a similar exercise. Think about a time in the past that seems like yesterday: your wedding, birth of a child, college graduation, or a trip to a bowl game. How long ago was that? Now, look ahead the same amount of time. How old will you be? If that event seemed like yesterday, then your future age will seem like tomorrow. So, make today special. (Sorry, I had to get one bumper sticker lesson in there☺)
