Have you reached your peak or are you still climbing?

I have many small goals that are constantly changing as priorities are juggled. My main goal has always been to be happy, even when I didn't recognize that was my purpose. It doesn't take much to make me happy, and the quest for happiness isn't selfish. Happy people spread joy and warmth. It is contagious and a good thing to share.

At a party over the holiday season, I was in the company of a man I've met maybe 4 or 5 times. As people mingled and conversations changed, I noticed this particular man brought his college years into the conversation no matter what was being discussed. Perhaps I should give him credit for creativity. It couldn't have been easy to work playing football in a Rose Bowl game over 40 years ago into a conversation about the price of a gallon of milk.

I understand the team's achievement in winning that prized position of playing in a bowl game, and I know reminiscing is fun, especially if you have a captive audience enjoying your story. Sadly though, each time I've been around this man, who never seems to remember having met me before, he tells the same stories of his heyday.  He does not live in the present. Dementia or Alzheimers is not an issue. A little too much alcohol is probably a contributing factor, but no matter how early in the party you catch him, he is reliving games, frat parties and pranks from 40+ years ago. It seems he defined his peak by those events. Unable to participate in them now, he has nothing new to talk about and doesn't know how to listen to others who are enjoying the present.

Wherever you are today, enjoy the present and don't be afraid to find new peaks to climb. You'll never catch me climbing a mountain, but I hope I will always look forward to challenges that I find enjoyable, and will always be present in conversations with people rather than orating from the past.