15 Years Strong
Two Trailheads
What happens when you want to hike during a de facto 15-year college reunion with your closest friends?
Apparently, you spend months planning for everyone to fly across the country for the sole purpose of spending time together, only to end up at two different trailheads an hour apart because no one bothered to confirm which trail we were hiking.
Rather than meeting up and doing the thing the trip was meant for — quality time with the boys — both sides dug in, because obviously the other group made the mistake and they should be the ones to come over. Instead, we spent the first half of our final day on separate hikes complaining about how stupid the other group was.
Core memories created.
In fairness to all of us, we were struggling after a late night out. None of us are the same spry youth that graduated from college 15 years ago. That version of me would call turning in at 2am an early night. The current 37-year-old version was floored by a mosquito that interrupted my REM cycle at 1 am and spent the entire next day complaining that “I don’t feel good because I didn’t get my full 7 hours of sleep.”
Aside from the clear physical decline, I’d like to think we’ve at least gained something in maturity and wisdom. How can we not? By any measure, 15 years is a long time. It spans multiple seasons of life. For me: grinding away my early career in finance, transitioning to big tech, getting married, having a kid, and then another. All those experiences change you. They teach you something about life. They teach you something about yourself. And in the process, we evolve a little closer to our final form.
The Next Fifteen
Looking back, it’s hard not to wonder where those last fifteen years went. Walking through Rice’s Sallyport with diploma in hand doesn’t feel like yesterday but fifteen years!?
I don’t think our brains are designed to works on those time scales. Mine operates day-to-day trying to balance family, work, and life. I can’t tell you what life will look like in one month let alone fifteen years.
But if I had to guess…
In my early-50s (damn…) Julian and Serena will be getting ready for college. I’ll have retired early after having opened multiple successful Little Gym locations. I’ll be deep in production on the Juju and Meimei television show, which will have surpassed Bluey as the most popular children’s program in the U.S. I’ll also be a scratch golfer.
Ok, some of that may not happen. I may have to settle for a single-digit handicap.
But there are a few things I’m certain of.
The first is that the journey will be filled with ups and downs — wild, unpredictable, and challenging, but also rewarding, fulfilling, and meaningful. You may not end up exactly where you expected, but wherever you end up is exactly where you were meant to be.
The second is that the same people who were there for my last fifteen years will be there for the next. Obviously my family, but my friends too. We may not get together as often as we used to — one group trip a year if we’re lucky. But we always find our way back to each other. Whether that’s searching for each other on the festival grounds, ending up on separate hikes an hour apart, or being scattted across the country with endless family and work obligations pulling us in different directions. We’ll find a way to get back together.
Mostly because I am always the one to plan it.
Our 30-year reunion will look much the same — same people, same inside jokes, same lines we’d never cross anywhere else. Just with worse knees, flabbier dad bods, and hopefully the good sense to end up on the same hike.
Love you guys.