The High Court

Deep Thinkers Only...

The American Story-It’s the Journey, My Friend

If you enjoy a journey……Play a sport!

By Darth Reagan

 

 

I was fortunate enough to travel to Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada this past weekend for my college roommate and former teammate’s wedding! I had been to Canada about 10 years ago and thankfully from what I can tell it hasn’t changed a whole lot. It’s still a beautiful place, laid back and family oriented with a Tim Horton’s Coffee Shop on every corner…(Horton’s is a Canadian version of Starbucks, except the coffee is actually good and it’s named after an ex-NHL star, of course)…….Also, from my perspective, Canada is still the proud hockey nation it always has been which is a good thing, but surprisingly I found a bunch of people that said they will not go back to the NHL when they return to the ice (I guess they read my article on Unions)……..

 

One of the many joys of going to Canada is experiencing the little differences…..

For instance, they have purple money and pink money…..They have only one place to buy beer and it’s called, “The Beer Store”……..You can only buy liquor at; you guessed it, “The Liquor Store”……Finally, when you need something for your home you can buy it at, drum roll please; Canadian Tire? I still haven’t figured that one out yet…..but who cares because it works for them! The bottom line is this: it’s a wonderful place with wonderful people that mean the world to me and I never would have met them without my journey through sports. I am forever thankful for that.

 

We are all on a journey of sorts and we never quite know exactly where we are going...but I believe that’s the beauty of it……because who wants to know the ending? I used to think that I was involved in sports to become a Hall of Famer. As nice as that would’ve been it just didn’t happen. As I look back on it now I believe more athletes should focus on the overall journey associated with athletics; as opposed to the payoffs at the end. The end is never fun, especially for athletes because they believe they can play forever. Unfortunately, playing forever just isn’t possible. The only things in life that last forever are the memories and the friendships we develop in life.

 

This past Saturday evening as I sat in the corner of a banquet hall in Guelph, Ontario (1200 miles from my home in Central Florida) I was able to enjoy another part of my journey. I watched my college teammate and friend of many years marry his High School Sweetheart and give a toast thanking all of his friends who were mostly former teammates. I also spent the entire weekend with a life long friend and his family, playing golf, telling stories and having a few frosty beers…..How can you beat that?

 

Now as I sit on the plane with my knees jammed into my chest I have the honor of writing an article for The High Court of Sports. Again, I’m partnered with a former teammate and a friend for life in bringing all of our ideas on the world of sports to our readers. It’s perfect because I never would’ve have thought it to be possible.

 

I guess my advice to myself and any other athletes out there is to play hard, enjoy your time with your teammates and cherish every minute of every day with them. Someday the games will end but we soon see that we still have those teammates in front of us and behind us for the ultimate game…..The game of life…….