6th Place

Last night I found a medal for a 6th place finish, for a cross country meet for junior varsity conference championship.  To put this in perspective, I think they gave out medals to the top ten. In junior varsity.  Oddly enough I think this is the only thing I've really won.  A friggin' 6th place medal.  I was a high school senior, and I wasn't even good enough to be on varsity, and the sad thing was I think I could've placed better, because I still had a little in the tank, at the end, to hold off, some guy coming up behind me.  How embarrassing.  6th place in a JV race, is rather embarrassing to say the least, and as far as I can tell is the only thing that would go on a "trophy" shelf.  I'm 34, which is like 24, but you move slower, have kids, and the beginnings of grey hair.  It means if I want to do something important there's less time to do it in, I've been trying to write books, and scripts, and novels, most of my life, only recently have started finding my work coming together on some things. At 34.  And I don't know if there award winning projects or not, and frankly, that's not the point.  I'm still trying to do things I love, because I love them, and I want to do something important, and even that process is way better than 6th place.  Don't be in 6th, keep going at whatever it is you're doing, because it's important to you, and can leave a bigger stamp on the world than sitting home doing nothing, or taking a runner up to the runner up to the runner up to the runner up to the runner up prize.