I have to say, I think I’m quite comfortable with ‘moving on’ in life. I mean, that’s just what Life’s all about, isn’t it? Good things happen; bad things happen. Hey, s**t happens whether we like it or not. Sometimes, it’s not worth getting too worked up about it. Acceptance is often the remedy.
Accept, adapt and move on.
Now, having written that, what I’m about to own up to will sound very trivial – and, to a degree, contradictory to the above!
The one phase of my life that I found difficult to say ‘goodbye’ to, was when injury forced me to give up athletics and football at the age of only twenty-three.
An exploratory knee operation resulted in the Consultants explaining I’d be in a wheelchair by the time I was thirty if I carried on with those two sports in particular.
Hearing those words was an almighty shock.
I had enjoyed both sports since primary school; I had joined my local athletics club at age thirteen in 1972. Training for both took up just about all my free time.
This bombshell news came not long before I married and my wife and I moved to our new home in Stirling – about thirty-odd miles from my athletics club. Much as I loved my new surroundings (and wife, obviously! 😉 ) I truly missed the camaraderie of my fellow runners.
I missed the physical exertion; I missed the discipline; I missed the competition.
Perhaps it all happened at the right time. Maybe it would have been harder to accept had I still been living close to my Clubs (my athletics clubhouse was only a three minute run away from my parents’ house.)
At least I had new adventures and a new life to look forward to.
It was certainly good compensation, but never-the-less, it still left a void in my life.
Hey ho. It’s happened to way-better athletes than me; athletes and football players whose livelihoods depended on their chosen sports.
But I made friends for life through these sports, and still meet up with many on a regular basis, some fifty-plus years later.
So it’s all good.
🙂
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Cee Tee Jackson 
Life is that way Jackson, it gives us unexpected twists and turns. You have moved on and made such good friends, the picture says it all. No regrets just keep moving ahead ✌🏾💖💖
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That’s terrific that you’ve developed some lifelong friends through athletics like that!
It’s interesting to hear the story, sometimes about professional athletes, who either stay too long in the game, or end up, trying to come back from retirement just because they’re not ready to say goodbye to the sport yet.
I’m reminded of the line from the movie Moneyball, when one of the scout is talking to Billy Beane and his family and he says “some people are told when they’re 18, others here when they’re 40; but eventually everyone is told that they can no longer play the child’s game”
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Never seen the film, but I know the one you mention. It’s so tempting to prolong something you enjoy, possibly to the detriment of performance and / or health. (Check Andy Murray for example.)
I did make a comeback at a lower level (football) but eventually had to accept my knees were just not up to it. Then, 40 years later, I made a comeback to running, reasoning I wouldn’t need my knees so long!
I was doing so well, and bringing my times down and down … then last April had a (completely unrelated and totally idiopathic) cardiac arrest!. 😀
I’ve NOW accepted my competing days are over .. though I still play team tennis. 😀 😀
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