I know I’m a bit late to the party, but last Friday, I helped coach my last track meet of the season, and the end came quick. That not only ended my first year coaching track, it ended my first year as a coach period. Football, basketball, and now track… I miss it all already! I had felt for many years that my life had been missing something. I tried filling it with hobbies and projects and whatever, but coaching these sports and hanging out with these kids gave me a purpose I didn’t know I was missing. This was the first week without practice, and I already miss the routine, the kids, the laughing and the yelling, but most especially, the energy. I have never felt both so old and so young at the same time. I can’t really express how I feel. I don’t know what the next year will look like, but I hope I get to do it all again, and now with one year under my belt, I hope to do it better. Thanks everyone for the push and the help throughout the year. It was a lot of fun, and I’m glad I did it.

The other day, while at work, I went to go fill up my water bottle in the gym lobby. The 2nd graders were there having PE, and as I screwed the top to my bottle, Gabriel, one of the students, saw me and yelled, “Mario, Mario! Can you fix my sink?”

“Your sink?”

“Yeah.”

“What sink?”

“My sink.”

“Where is your sink?”

“My house.”

“You want me to fix your sink at your house?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not going to your house to fix your sink.”

“But you’re Super Mario!”

My favorite end-of-year recap is back!

All this has done is make me miss baseball.

I helped coached my first set of middle school boys basketball games today, and I have to say, I had loads of fun! I didn’t play basketball growing up and I didn’t know much about the game before I signed on to help coach, but after a few weeks with these boys and coach Pederson, I’m beginning to enjoy and maybe even love this game. I’m excited for the rest of this season!

Proud moment yesterday: at the district volleyball tournament, I brought my two cameras so I could take photos of our girls when a sixth grader asked me if she could use my camera to take photos, and I said sure. She wants to be a photographer, she said, so I gave her my camera and showed her how to use it. Later, another girl asked me if she could use my camera to take photos of our girls, and I said sure! She loves photography, she said, so I gave her my second camera and showed her how to use it. For the next two hours or so, they went out and shot photos while I got to enjoy the game. I was so proud (and a little nervous), but I loved that they wanted to take photos! And they did: they filled up my SD cards and drained my batteries!! 😂

If I manage to live as long as I am expected to live as an American male in the year 2024, then I have about 12,000 days left to live. My focus at this moment is to live better today than I did yesterday, and if I manage to do that for every one of the 12,000 days I have left, then I think I can live a full life.

Today, then, is all that matters, just like this breath is all that matters. Not the ones that came before, not the ones that will come after, just this one.

Stop it with the excuses. Stop it with the mental dishonesty. Push myself until I cry. Push myself until my body can’t take it anymore. Push myself until I see the white light at the end of the tunnel.

The middle school boys basketball season began on Tuesday with only the head coach hired to help coach them. I was asked a few weeks ago if I wanted to help, but I was eager to take a break from coaching until maybe the spring.

Yesterday one of my football boys asked me if I can help coach basketball.

I told him I would think about it, but I knew the answer as soon as he asked me:

I had my first basketball practice tonight, and I loved every minute of it. Here’s to another season with these boys 🍻

I already miss it.

Some things currently on my mind:

• Focus on being a good adult
• Keep a clean home
• Take care of myself
• Hang out with friends
• Be a part of the community
• Be a good influence