OK, a little background. Before I went to Notre Dame, I attended State Univ of NY Maritime College. While there I played ice hockey and learned I didn’t want to be an engineer. You know the rest of the story. Notre Dame, Marines, etc….

Anyway, two weeks ago I got an email on LinkedIn from a guy I skated with in 1982! They were doing an alumni hockey game. I had not seen nor talked to any of these guys in 29 years. I left school and my life went one way and they went theirs. But something about the game got my attention. I mean, we had some fun, we drank some beers (OK ALOT of beers), we won a championship. I knew I wanted to go.

However, yesterday I had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon. So, it would mean the last flight to NYC (in this case Newark). Landing at 7:30PM and driving through NYC to get to Great Neck for an 8:45 game. Then back to Newark after the game and post game dinner to stay at the hotel there so I could get the first flight back to Raleigh. In other words, this made no sense. So, I did it!!

What a blast. and no one got hurt!

Check out these old timers

What is my point? There will ALWAYS be reasons to say no to an event like this. In fact, I pride myself on being able to say no so we are not overcommitted in our house. But this was unique and I am so glad I went.

Of course, I have never done anything like this. Almost 30 years have passed but those guys who were my friends back then are still good guys. It was good to reconnect. We told stories. We filled in the blanks. We did life together and it was good. We will not wait another 30 years, I expect to be putting my hockey gear on next year again.

I will let you know when I do. But until then, make sure you say YES to maintaining more relationships in your life. Each of you has a Cal, Boomer, Nick, John, Bill, Steve, Lou and Daryl in your past. I hope you reconnect.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.