Hindsight

They say that 'hindsight is 20/20', 'the past is the past', and 'what's done is done'. Oh yeah...and my favorite, 'it is what it is'. Generally, I think that's good advice to not live in the past, however I can't help but thinking of what could have been if I knew 20 years ago, what I know now - particularly when I applied to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and eventually graduated with a degree in Agricultural Business. (Why that major? Long story. But hey, I've got a strong business background and a solid understanding of production agriculture and that can never be taking away from me!)

In hindsight, I wonder what I'd be doing now if I had pursued a degree in Journalism or Communications. Right now my dream would be to be Bill Simmons, aka 'Sports Guy'. He's editor of an ESPN owned website - www.grantland.com that covers sports and pop culture - records a podcast a few hours a week - often just BSing with his buddies about their sports teams - and travels to the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star game and various other sporting events around the country on ESPN's dime so he can write a weekly column. Not a bad life if you ask me. He's also written a New York Times bestseller - The Book of Basketball (which included no less than 6 pages on the parallels between the career of Kobe Bryant and the movie Teen Wolf). His columns and podcasts are often about gambling, TV (The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Sopranos, Breaking Bad etc...), fantasy football, video games and entertainment in general. Until recently when he opened up a new office/studio in LA he worked out of his home office/man cave where he's got something like 6 TV's and every imaginable sports package that's available on cable or satellite. The bromance continues. He's buddies with Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, Cousin Sal and Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame.

Between reading his column, following him on twitter and listening to his podcast, I feel like I spend more time with him then I do with my wife and kids. Clearly, I've got a serious man crush on him - or at least on his life so I'm going to keep living vicariously through him until my wife catches me and stomps on my iPhone. I know she' tempted to (damn you Words with Friends!) and I've barely had it for 2 months. (BTW: HTF did I live without an iPhone?)

I'm 38 now, have 2 kids, a mortgage and I'm not exactly in a position to quit my job, go back to school and start a new career. But I can at least start by writing something...this is something.