Speaker 1: Time to give you reflections from an almost old man.
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, I celebrated my forty ninth birthday. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: just another day for me. You know, birthdays stop being
Speaker 1: truly important event for me a long time ago. But
Speaker 1: I have great friends and family that still won't to
Speaker 1: celebrate it, whether it's to a text message or a
Speaker 1: phone call, or take me out to dinner at Buffalo
Speaker 1: Wild Wings and have the staff come out and try
Speaker 1: to embarrass me by singing Happy Birthday, because everybody knows
Speaker 1: that that's not my thing. But it's part of the fun.
Speaker 1: But part of the reason why I say reflections from
Speaker 1: an almost old man is I remember distinctly as a kid. Now.
Speaker 1: As a kid, you realistically think that somebody twenty five
Speaker 1: or older is old, but you really put a number
Speaker 1: in your head. And the number for me and my
Speaker 1: friends when we were growing up was always, well, we're
Speaker 1: not going to be old men till we turn fifty.
Speaker 1: Here I am at forty nine. I'm one year away
Speaker 1: from fifty. Next year, God willing, I'll hit that milestone.
Speaker 1: So yes, these are reflections from an almost old man,
Speaker 1: because I'm not there yet. I'm not quite old, so
Speaker 1: maybe I don't have the wisdom yet to share with
Speaker 1: you this morning because I'm an almost old man. I'm
Speaker 1: not an old man yet. They say that you're only
Speaker 1: as old as you feel well. Some mornings, I don't
Speaker 1: know that I like that saying, because some morning somebody
Speaker 1: feel like an eighty year old man. Other mornings I
Speaker 1: feel fresh and alive, like maybe I'm a young eighteen
Speaker 1: year old again. And then I get up and realize
Speaker 1: I'm not when things crank and hurt. But young people,
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to you for a second. I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk to you and maybe you'll listen to
Speaker 1: this almost old man. For those of you graduating from
Speaker 1: high school entering college for the first time, you may
Speaker 1: have been grown up. You may have grown up in
Speaker 1: a Christian conservative household. Everything that you believe is about
Speaker 1: to be challenged when you walk into that college. You're
Speaker 1: going to have professors. They're going to tell you that
Speaker 1: every value that your parents instilled in you is one
Speaker 1: hundred percent incorrect. You're going to have professors. They're going
Speaker 1: to tell you that everything that you believe about politics
Speaker 1: is wrong. It's own you to stand up to that
Speaker 1: and to not fall for these egg headed professors nonsense.
Speaker 1: A lot of kids do because again they see that
Speaker 1: title of doctor in front of their name, and they
Speaker 1: instantly think to themselves, well, that's doctor Jones. So doctor Jones, absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's somebody that I should be able to trust. He's
Speaker 1: somebody that is clearly smarter than my dad, definitely smarter
Speaker 1: than my mom. They don't have doctor in front of
Speaker 1: their names. So everything they told me must be wrong.
Speaker 1: It's not stick with the values that have been instilled
Speaker 1: in you because your parents knew what they were doing.
Speaker 1: Question everything means question the professor as well. I'm okay
Speaker 1: with question everything. I'm okay with you doing your own
Speaker 1: research and coming up with your own values and opinions.
Speaker 1: Fine with that, but make them your own. Don't allow
Speaker 1: them to be the professors. And don't come home and
Speaker 1: tell your parents that they were wrong about everything because
Speaker 1: doctor Jones told you that they were. And that's just
Speaker 1: not the way you should be doing anything. Other advice
Speaker 1: I have for you is, if you are of faith,
Speaker 1: hold on to your faith, stick with it. If you
Speaker 1: have not yet found your faith, you need to, and
Speaker 1: you need to find it fast. Ask to come into
Speaker 1: your heart to forgive you of your sins. Tomorrow is
Speaker 1: not promised. There's a reason why I said than in
Speaker 1: a year's time, I'll celebrate my fiftieth God willing, because
Speaker 1: it's tomorrow is not promised. Tonight. You could lay down,
Speaker 1: go to sleep and never wake up again. You can
Speaker 1: leave your house this morning on your way to school
Speaker 1: and never make it there. Life is a gift. It's precious.
Speaker 1: We don't understand that as we're going through it. We
Speaker 1: focus too much on the hardships. I'm guilty of that too.
Speaker 1: I'm not being judgmental of you. I'm probably one of
Speaker 1: the world's worse at focusing on the hardships, the fact
Speaker 1: that I've made it this long in my age without
Speaker 1: ever getting married, without having children. But our hardships are
Speaker 1: not what we need to be focused on. We need
Speaker 1: to focus on the fact that this is a gift.
Speaker 1: This is a gift from God. He gave us this life.
Speaker 1: He gave us these opportunities to experience life, to find friendships,
Speaker 1: to love and lose love, to feel hurt sometimes and
Speaker 1: sometimes yes, hurt is good for you may not believe
Speaker 1: it at the time, but it can be. If I
Speaker 1: have any more advice for you young people from this
Speaker 1: almost old man it would be don't rush into relationships
Speaker 1: if you believe that the person you're at this high
Speaker 1: school sweetheart or this freshman girlfriend. I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: they won't be the love of your life, because they
Speaker 1: might be. But if they're not, that's okay too. If
Speaker 1: you grow up and you end up never marrying, like
Speaker 1: not me, that's fine as well. Live your life, experience things. Travel.
Speaker 1: If you've always wanted to go to a Cubs game
Speaker 1: and see Wrigley Field, do it. If you've always wanted
Speaker 1: to go to a Red Sox game, see Fenway Park,
Speaker 1: do it. If you want to go to lambeau Field,
Speaker 1: if you want to go to Notre Dame Stadium to
Speaker 1: Brian Denny Stadium, do it. Experience life. Make sure that
Speaker 1: when you reach the almost old man stage of your
Speaker 1: life that you can look back and say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed myself up into this point, and as I
Speaker 1: crossed that threshold next year, God willing of the Big five, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that I'm adding more fun memories and those
Speaker 1: personal tragedies, those personal problems that tend to get focused
Speaker 1: on way more than we should allow it to be
Speaker 1: that those are not the majority of the things that
Speaker 1: I reflect on as I reach that milestone next year.
Speaker 1: This has been mourning coffee with an almost old man,
Speaker 1: My bad. This has been mourning coffee with the right side.
Speaker 1: And I'm your host, the almost old man, Jack Fairchild's
Speaker 1: and we're a part of the Midnight Ride Network.