Thanksgiving Come Early

I've been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am.  I'm extremely lucky.  I have the best family.  And that's all that really matters.  They would support me in any way possible in anything that I wanted to do.  It just so happened that I decided to play junior hockey for two years after high school--something a lot of parents would frown upon--but my parents basically said, "It's your life; go chase your dream," with some slight frowning, but they never showed me.  There are not a lot of people out there in this chaotic world whose only real worry is getting better at a game where the objective is to poke a little circular rubber thing into a net while on skates and ice.  It just sort of puts things into perspective for me, and I can't take anything for granted because I'm not going to be able to play this sport forever, and sooner than later I'm going to be out in the real world.  (Just remember:  All roads lead to beer league, even the NHL road.)  But I'm going to be out there with a lot of gained knowledge from these two years.


Honestly, I never thought I was the kind of kid who could benefit from two years of junior hockey.  I thought I was on the path to go from high school, to college, to Real World (not the MTV version), like most kids in the US, or at least most of my friends.  But I decided to chase my dream with a two year commitment to junior hockey and sacrifice the "normal" college experience.  In a lot of ways, it hasn't been what I was expecting, but in a lot of ways, it's been much more than I ever could've imagined.  I've learned so much.  And, again, I'm lucky to be in the spot I am with an awesome coach, an awesome billet family, and an awesome job (which, by the way, is giving me a sniff of the Real World that not a lot of kids in junior hockey are getting.)  A lot of times, I tend to think that I am so ready to get to college, but I know I will miss this life when it's over in less than a year, and I will always be thankful for the lessons I've learned in the process.  My dad recently sent me a quote from Steve Jobs that probably everyone has read since he passed away, but I think it is just such a great quote: "You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."  I find myself getting caught up in the future way too much, and I let it affect myself in the present, which then has an effect on my past because what I do in the present quickly becomes the past.  Moral of the story:  it's just not good to worry about the future.  Think about it, but don't worry about it.  Things will work out if you have the right work ethic and character.  And I think I do.  I have to enjoy this moment and just trust my gut.  My mom told me a few days ago when I called her that my future is in my hands.  I can do whatever I want in life. 


I now know that in less than a year, I'm going to go to college a much better hockey player and, more importantly, a much more mature person, with a better idea of what I want to do in my life.  For instance, I've decided that I want to write a book about all this crazy junior hockey stuff.  Sort of like a road map to junior hockey and college hockey.  I'd say I have a pretty good start with this blog and all.  I now know I'm going to go into college much more driven to succeed than I would've coming straight out of high school.  For now, though, I can just keep focusing on hockey.  I'm lucky.  I don't really know what inspired this deep thought in this post, but I've been feeling especially thankful these days.