The One About Fame

I remember the day I walked down the long carpeted hallway lined with pictures hanging on the wall and noticed that they had finally hung it up. The picture stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the faded images of former athletes that were now twice my age. I remember smiling at the thought that my picture would be up on the wall for a very long time. I felt like I had achieved some sort of fame or status that was now somewhat permanent. This picture that I'm referring to is the picture that was taken moments after my high school baseball team won the sectional championship.

Baseball was a huge part of my life growing up, but I don't really think about it so much. I keep a baseball on my desk for the moments where I need to be creative. I grab the baseball and run it through my hands. I feel the seams running over my hands and lean back in my chair and the creative juices start flowing.

The whole point of this is that when I saw my picture there I thought that baseball was the reason why people would remember me. That people would see my picture on the wall and think of me as an athlete...and that made me happy. Now that I look back on this moment in my life I wish I would have been mature enough to hope that people would remember me, not for my ability to hit a homerun or play first base, but instead for who I was as a person. That I would have lived a life that when people thought of my name they though "Man, he cared about people" or "He served no matter the cost."

After transitioning from high school to college and then college to real life...I am able to see that we each face this same choice in our lives. When we leave this world behind what are we going to be remembered for? Are we going to be remembered for driving a fancy car and working insane hours to be able to afford the fancy car? Are we going to be remembered for being a jerk and always ready for an argument? Or are we going to be remembered for serving others. Loving people unconditionally and not because we seak to gain something from them.