Monday, August 11, 2008

Just a Reminder...


Growing up I never really had an opportunity to make friends my own age. In school all the kids were 2 to 3 years older than me, and if you tacked on my extracurricular activities, school pretty much monopolized ALL of my time. Then came the summer, and like I had done every summer since I was 10, I spent the day being a Junior Lifeguard. The Junior Lifeguards was a lot like the Boy Scouts, except the boys in the Junior Lifeguards actually had penises! For a few hours a day, I got to hang with guys my own age, and it almost felt like I was normal. At the beach nobody cared that I was a boy genius because physical fitness was the great equalizer (of course I was just slightly better than everybody else, so that didn’t hurt either).

The beach was where I found my identity, but more specifically, the Junior Lifeguards. It was more than discovering my love for the ocean, perfecting my surf skills, and learning how to save lives; it was a lifestyle, it was a frame of mind, and it was the beginning of what made me who I am today. All this face time with the only woman I ever got an erection for (mother nature), without actually thinking about a guy while I was screwing her anyway, has helped me to remember what it is I used to be passionate about. This in turn got me all nostalgic for the good old days, so I was a little more than shocked when all this nostalgia culminated in running into an old friend from the Junior Lifeguards here in Costa Rica.

Chris is in charge of all the surf instructors and guides here at the surf resort we are staying at. I haven’t seen the dude in six years, and in this time he’s grown a foot and gained about 30 lbs of the SEXIEST muscle EVER! The irony that a guy who went to a state college and majored in recreation got the same job as a guy who went to an ivy league and received an engineering degree isn’t lost on me either. In the end I definitely think Chris was the smarter man because he never wasted the time trying to be something he wasn’t like I did.

When Chris first showed me this picture I couldn’t stop laughing! This was right after my senior year and it was my last day of Junior Lifeguards. It was all about physical fitness, endurance, camaraderie, and saving lives, and of course doing it a little better and a little faster than everybody around us. This was taken at the beginning of the Junior Lifeguard Championships. We were totally pumped and we KNEW we were going to dominate the entire day. We all had these goofy smiles and a look of pure cocky pride that only a teenager with raging hormones like us could produce.

Lately I have been so caught up in figuring out the right way to be a grownup. I have become obsessed with trying to find myself the perfect 9 to 5 where I could maybe at best tolerate some awful job that would slowly drive me crazy in hopes that one day I could retire and spend the last days of my miserable existence watching reruns of Project Runway on Nick at Night. Every guy in this picture has gone on to achieve greatness. Maybe not in the eyes of society in general, but in my eyes absolute greatness because they unapologetically pursued what they loved. It took them moments to know what it took me years to figure out, It’s not about the destination, its about the journey.

4 comments:

Trevor said...

HAHA! Loved the boy scout jab! Compared to the JL's it's so true. However I completely disagree with calling yourself not smart. You are quite possibly the smartest guy I know and its only partially due to your book smarts. You have an ability to see, understand, and experience the world in ways that most of us will never experience. You say it takes you longer to learn and figure things out, while that may be true, have you ever stopped to think of all the shit you have accomplished in your 23 years!? I know people who are twice your age and still haven't quite managed to pick up your kind of life experience.

Besides the only thing that can make you look stupid is if you think you haven't achieved greatness in your life! Have you met you!? You forget I have seen your trophy room. Just to let you know, it's unnatural to have as many academic awards as you do athletic ones.

Jason said...

Yeah it's always unfortunate when the beautiful and intelligent boys have all this crazy life experience that almost everybody else in the world would kill to experience. It must really suck being RGB sometimes!

Matt said...

Mmmmm, lifeguards. ;-)

John said...

Costa Rica sounds fantastic! I have always wanted to go there. You are a pretty luck guy.