Every year around this time, there’s a big movement for college basketball players to get paid. There’s obviously a lot of money in NCAA hoops and the athletes aren’t seeing any of it.
But I don’t really care about that. The problem I have with the tournament of 64 is that for 80% of these kids, their lives will never be better than it is right now.
The athletes don’t know that yet. They still dream of the NBA or settling for abroad. They’ve been great players their whole lives and it’ll be a surprise when they aren’t fast enough or tall enough for the next level. Or worse, their bodies can’t handle the next level, and they’ll spend the next thirty years cursing their left knee for keeping them from their destiny.
Whenever I catch a game at a bar, I imagine the years of suicides these kids did for this moment. But for them, it was worth it. Most of us will never be as famous or as happy as these kids are now. But the rest of our lives won’t be a memory of something that happened when we were twenty.
I hope my life hasn’t peaked, and not just because I don’t know what the peak would be. I’d like to believe it will keep getting better. Last year at this time, I was really excited about what my life was going to become. Over the past year, I’ve never been happier to answer questions about what I do with my time, but I’ve also never been poorer.
A year ago, I had an idea about my life, and now I’m living it. The technical stuff is less fun than the concept, but at least there’s more to come.