Right Where I Was Supposed to Be

Well hello world. This one could be a little short. I wanted to share an experience that I had yesterday that based on my first impression and feeling for what was going to happen and then living the experience and what happened. It was another opportunity and way for me to kind of validate and understand that my best thinking, my initial thinking, isn't always the best thinking. But it was a great day and a great night. I was fortunate enough to go to the World Cup game in Kansas City, Missouri between Argentina and Switzerland last night. Beautiful night, gorgeous summer evening with the sun setting over the stadium, the pinks and purples and oranges and colors, the fans, the atmosphere, the singing, the love, just the feeling of camaraderie and joyousness was everywhere. From the drive-in to the parking lot to the walk across the street to the picture-taking to the embracing all of it magical. While I was invited to this game by one of my old high school friends who in some respects is still living in high school. There's four of us, Brian, Graham, Chris and myself. Chris and I both live in Kansas City, Graham and Brian both live down in Cape Gerardo, Missouri. Brian is an enormous Argentinian fan, has seen games all over the world, World Cup games, European qualifiers. He has a zest for living that is nearly unmatched. He also has a bit of a free-spirited nature about the way he consumes alcohol, but it's fine and I don't mean that in any disrespect. So I was invited to the game, I was able to get a ticket and I will say I was a little nervous about how this was all going to go out. I mean I was the sober one with a program for living and that's what I was there to do. You know one of the guys, Graham, I haven't seen him since 1997 and in that time he's experienced some substantial loss and challenges, but he's managed to change parts of his life and he's doing much better than my very one of my very best friends Chris. He was, he knows the guys and he visits home Cape Gerardo a bit more than I do. So he's a little more in tune with their lives than I am. So needless to say my job at the night was to be the designated driver and kind of the additional role of voice of reason and occasional buffer between the general public and these maniacs. And so I was a little nervous and there were a few moments when I had to pull back one of my friends from getting a little too animated or intense during the game, but it wasn't too bad. I mean this is a world cup quarter final with people who are very passionate. People will get a little animated and that's okay. It wasn't really exhausting. It was a ton of fun. You know I had a reason to be there. I was able to be helpful and to be an example and what was really really cool and one of the things I will remember more than anything in that night was we drove around. We finally got back. I drove around. We finally got back to my friend's house and so we're sitting in the basement and the four of us are sitting there talking about life. Old friends. The changes we've been through in the future. And it was really interesting because to a person all of them were just really thankful that I was there. You know they were very supportive of where I am today and there I say they might have been even maybe even admired me that I could navigate that entire evening and experience completely clean and clear-headed. And to think that someday I would have been the example or that I am the example to these guys is a miracle. Miracle. And I left and drove back home thinking that was right where I was supposed to be. Peace.