8/8/2025
School is getting ready to start on Tuesday for Macie, who is a freshman, and Trey, who is a seventh grader.
Macie is one of the trainers for the Pleasanton athletic program.
(Side note: Being a trainer isn’t very glamorous. Making sure players have enough water and taping their nasty ankles doesn’t get celebrated very much. Our celebrity culture doesn’t leave much room for cultural applause directed at those who serve. I don’t much think that Macie loves being a trainer. But she’s there, faithfully serving others. And I couldn’t be more proud of her.)
Being a trainer is a lot of work… she had to be at the high school this morning for a short deal at 8. Then there’s practice at 3, and Spirit Night at the stadium at 7.
We don’t know how long this deal will last this morning so after I ran a quick errand, I’m back waiting for her to be done.
As I sit here in the senior class parking lot, I’m looking at the way many of these seniors have decorated their parking spots. Very creative. Very fun. Very sweet.
These are great days for these seniors. And there is a marking of a milestone. To finish twelve years of school is a big deal.
Sure, one really only has to show up and do a little bit of work along the way to graduate. But showing up is important. And these kids have been showing up for nearly twelve years.
Macie has four more years. Rece has five. And Trey has six. These are exciting times. The best days of their lives.
Up until now.
I remember enjoying my senior year of high school. And no, I didn’t have it all together. And so there was some hard stuff. But there is always hard stuff.
And I realize that I probably spent too much time dreaming about the future. I’m bad about that. And I know that the future that I dream about and plan for never gets here. It’s always out there. The future is always, well, in the future.
But there is no doubt that at that point, those were the best days of my life. But they weren’t as good as the next ones were. Or the ones after that.
As I sit here thinking about that, I am reminded that THESE days, right now, are the best days of my life.
And I think that applies to everyone, young and old alike… these are the best days of our lives.
So I want to tell these seniors that, yes, this is gonna be a great year! But don’t forget that this isn’t your last year! Enjoy it. And do the best you can.
Because what you do today will make tomorrow either better or worse. Yep, what we do today makes tomorrow either better or worse.
And we will never regret doing the best we can.
