Looking Back

I've been going through a lot of clips and tidbits from my past recently. I'm trying to get them all in some sort of order, rather than just a huge, heaping pile filling up a cupboard in our office.

There is everything from my passport when I traveled to Ireland on a soccer trip in my early teenage years, to newspaper articles from basketball and soccer exploits in high school. It takes me back.

Typically I'm not much for living in the past. My philosophy is to not live in the past, and to never live with regrets, but to always look forward, to wake up and make the most of every day.

But just for fun I enjoy going through all this stuff. My Mom has kept after me to protect all of this stuff and get it into some kind of book for protection.

I'm often told that I never change. Looking at some of these old photos and newspaper articles, I guess that I haven't changed that much. I look a lot today like I did when I was a senior in high school.

Don't ask me how I've pulled that off. I don't know. I stay active. I always see myself as young. Although I keep getting reminders that I am indeed getting older.

After I chased a bunch of kids off my sidewalk the other day I thought to myself, "Wow, now I'm the grumpy old man chasing the kids away from my property."

I've also been on a networking site known as "Facebook" recently and that's connected me to a few people from my past as well. We had a fairly dysfunctional class at ELCO High School and were never a real cohesive unit. It was a rebelious time and we were a group of individuals, rather than individuals in a collective group.

During my senior year the school canceled virtually all activities due to concerns of general mischief and mayhem. We had no dances, no bonfire for homecoming, really nothing beyond the big items like prom and graduation. School administrators even threatened to cancel graduation. But the parents stepped in to assure that took place as planned.

So it's difficult connecting with many people from the past. It's hard finding many people from high school since folks have splintered out and many have left the area for more opportunities elsewhere.

Today I have an MRI of the brain scheduled for noon. The MRI should be very telling concerning the rate of growth and propagation of tumors in the brain. The brain is the main challenge right now in moving forward with this fight against cancer.

I've felt strong throughout the month of May, so I feel strong entering this MRI. The radiologists will have to look back to compare with today to chart our course forward from here. I guess history can always teach you something about how to best move forward.