Climbing the Mountain

"What are we doing with our lives?"--Jerry Seinfeld, Episode One,"The Engagement," Season Seven

I remember once, in my high school Health class, when a kid asked the teacher if high school was the best time in one's life. It was an honest, desperate question. Surely, the kid wondered, this couldn't be the high point, could it?

No, the teacher said, after thinking about it. College is the best time in one's life.


That was good news at the time. I sat back in my chair and smiled. My suspicions were confirmed: things will get better.

I graduated from college five years ago, and I look back on that answer from that teacher. What a sad, sad man. I still have that hope; he's living in the past. College was a hoot, but I was mostly a lazy knucklehead for those five years. I missed out on the biggest collegiate rock-climbing wall in America (OSU's behemoth at Dixon). I was out-of-shape. I watched too many movies, left too many books unread. I had tons of free time, but I can't really list a lot of accomplishments from those years.


Now, with a full-time job, hour commute, wife, and pets--actual responsibilites--I'm making things happen. In March, I plan on heading to Banff, the crown jewel of Canada's National Parks, to tear up Lake Louise Ski Resort. In May, I'll try to kill myself in the Eugene Half-Marathon. In June, I'll deliver an address to thousands of people at Gill Coliseum. In July, I'll head to Scotland. Sometime this summer, I'll ride a bicycle to San Francisco. I'll read some good books, maybe write a thing or two. This is a pretty good time of my life, much more exciting than high school and certainly on par with college. It would be sad if these years were the downhill slope, if the summit had already been reached.

Happily, many of my peers haven't given up, either. The guy that teaches two doors down from me is trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. My brother-in-law, tired of his job, applied for and was accepted to law school in Chicago. My brilliant wife is forging ahead in graduate school, dominating tests about arcane body parts and esoteric diseases. We're all elbowing our way up a little higher, raising our profiles.

I don't understand people that don't have goals, or watch a lot of TV, or don't get outside, or don't read. For them, there was a brief period--about four or five years--when they didn't live with their parents and, simultaneously, they didn't have a full-time job. College, and its absence of responsibilty, was their Mecca. Then they gave up. Life flared up for a few years, then burned out.

The mythical "best time in life" is an amorphous thing, almost solely determined by our will. For me, I think 57 will be a good year. That's my summit. After that, my health will probably start to go--the Kammerzelts have a history of colon cancer and high blood pressure--and I'll fade a bit. But the best time certainly isn't behind me. And, dear blog reader, it shouldn't be behind you.