By Tim Sullivan
In January I wrote lamenting an upcoming, milestone birthday as well as the aches and obstacles facing the aging, recreational athlete (me). That birthday has come and gone and while I try not to dwell on it all too much my kids like to inform just about anyone who will listen, “my daddy is 40.” So it goes.
Now I can empathize with Mike Gundy, the coach of the Oklahoma State football team who was notably quoted saying that if the media wanted to lay blame on anyone for a loss they should leave his 20-year-old quarterback alone and focus on him. He stated: “I’m a man! I’m 40!” Well, me too, coach, me too. For what I have lost in hairline I have gained in forehead and within that outsized forehead I have knowledge!
So through the magic of hyper-local media I lend this wisdom to my 20-year-old self on the topics if sport, fitness and health.
Dear 20 year old me,
1) You have lived in Atlanta for as long as you lived growing up in New York and 4.5 times as long as you lived in Boston, so wear some sunscreen for crying out loud.
2) Your wife has masters degrees in both nutrition and public health. Just go ahead and listen to her already, smart guy.
3) Your recreational basketball career is over. Probably. Unless you find that special group of guys who also have tender lower backs, agree to play the right way and not be jerks or foul too hard.
4) Golf still confounds you yet you are drawn to it more, play it less, and don’t take it too seriously.
5) Running is your therapist.
6) NASCAR and the energy that accompanies it continues to elude you, and you are thankful for that.
7) At 20, the nerds are nerds and the jocks are jocks. At 40, the nerds are jocks and the jocks are neither.
8) You will be told all along that fitness is a journey not a destination. Somewhere around age 35, you will start to understand this.
9) You will have toughed out three years of a boot camp-type exercise class. It will be great, then it will break you.
10) You will have had a colonoscopy. It won’t be that bad.
11) You genuinely enjoy fruit and vegetables much more nowadays. Nonetheless, Lucky Charms still taste delicious on occasion.
12) You don’t always drink beer, but when you do, you prefer IPA’s.
13) But on those mornings after you’ve had several of those, you’ll NEVER wake up wishing you had drank just one more. I’m just sayin’, party boy, just sayin’.
14) Your son will revive your enthusiasm for fandom with his love of sports and at the same time render it all less important. His Tuesday night T-ball game will matter more to you than the World Series.
15) You have come to revere the broad spectrum of amateur athletes and that is why you write this column. (Also, the professional athletes aren’t as good about calling you back.)
What say you dear readers? Any advice to add for your younger self (or mine)?
