COLUMN: Enjoy what we have while we have it

As I often do, trying to wind down before bed the other night, I watched videos on some social media platforms.

I came across one that made me think.

That video was of college baseball players, still in uniform after their team was eliminated from the College World Series, filling up cups of dirt from the field in Omaha.

Even the best teams will only have a few guys play professionally, even fewer make the majors. For some of the guys in that brief video, it was likely the last time for them to play the game they’d probably been playing since they were toddlers at a high level.

Sure, in a life that we hope spans 70-100 years, 18 or so of them doesn’t seem like a lot, but to them, in that moment, it’s all they ever knew.

It reminded me of the scene in the season 3 finale of the show “Friday Night Lights” where Tim Riggins leaves his cleats on the field after losing the state championship game.

It also got me thinking about our own local athletes, and how many of them I’ve been around in similar moments in the last seven years.

Whether it’s been at a football field after a playoff loss, or next to a volleyball court after a tough sectional game, or outside a locker room in a basketball gym, or next to a dugout on a diamond somewhere … you get the picture. It’s a moment where many find out and feel something they loved that had always been there is now over.

It also made me think of the local athletes that, in 2020, didn’t even get the chance to have that thing they love end on a field or court at no fault of their own.

Thinking about those guys in Omaha, and all of those athletes close to home, really makes you think about how we should appreciate the things we enjoy, no matter how big or small. You never know when it’s going to be the last time.

When I played my last youth football game as a teenager, I didn’t know it would be the last one.

The last time I went camping with my great grandparents, I didn’t know it was the last time.

It’s bigger than sports, this applies to everything.

When I saw family members for the last time that are now passed on, for the last time, how was I to know it was the last?

I had no way of knowing that the next time I saw some familiar faces that often interacted with me at games would be seeing their obituary photo checking the paper one day.

It’s simpler things, too. The list could be a lot longer than I could fit in this publication.

Then there are the things we know will be the last time. Those players in Omaha knew, whether it was as it was, as in the video, after being eliminated or after a celebration like it will be for one of the teams tonight, that one of the games out there would be the last one.

Our local athletes knew one of their games would be the last, too.

Sometimes knowing that makes it even more difficult.

The point of all this rambling is this — enjoy what you have while you have it.

We all have something we wish we could do again. Something we wish we could do differently or wish we appreciated more when it was happening.

Let’s try to remember to enjoy those things now.

Someday we’ll be looking back at our own version of a cup of infield dirt and wish we had.