Celebrating friends
Everyone has one life to live, a born date and a death date, a beginning and an end. How people spend that time between the dates is due to circumstances and can, at times, be beyond one’s control. Some people start fending for themselves at an early age while others have the elements in place to do so later. While the situations of a person should be taken into consideration when it comes to how one chooses to go about their lives, the one element that can be controlled is how people choose to commemorate each other, how people choose to honor their loved ones, and how people choose to recognize their accomplishments.
As someone who loves sports and enjoys entertainment, it’s fascinating how people can rally together and celebrate the accomplishment of a person, or group of people, that may never cross their paths. Despite the lack of kinship, it is totally understandable for a number of reasons. When watching a person, or a team’s, journey play out in real time, it is easy to get wrapped up in the emotions of the ride. As a sports fan, this is something that takes place throughout the year. Whether it’s the Cowboys starting organized training activities (a.k.a. OTAs), the Mavericks starting training camp, or the Rangers starting Spring Training, the journey tends to begin there and ends at the conclusion of their respective seasons. When the season has its moments of triumph, it is natural to celebrate along with the team due to the relationship that fans have with their squads.
With that said, celebrating friends and their accomplishments are just as important, if not more, because of the shared relationships in each other’s lives. Watching friends go through the grind of life, watching them stumble, get back up, stumble again, yet continue on toward a goal, is something that is commendable and memorable. Sure, their lives and journeys are not played on a readily-available TV or live streamed on a portable device, but their lives are played in real time in front of a viewing public that may include family, acquaintances, friends, and even haters. When friends reach a milestone, their celebrations can be with similar fervor to a favorite team winning a championship. Granted, it may be a little ridiculous to imagine that one of the homie’s graduating from college merits a parade with banana boats and street cars, but the celebration can still, and should still, happen due to the accomplishment which took place.
One of the worst things that can happen in life is celebrating someone when it’s too late. People shouldn’t have to be gone before they get their flowers; they should be given them while they still have the ability to smell them. Celebrate your friends, revel in their accomplishments, and let them know they deserve to be honored without putting it out there that you, as a person, are celebrating them. The celebration is about the person being honored, not the person doing the honoring. For the homies who have accomplished big things recently in the form of graduations, new jobs and careers taking off with the start of new ventures, your achievements are inspiring. For the ones who have journeys unfulfilled, yet are well on the way, keep pushing to get to the end. There will be a celebration with your name on it at the finish line and it will happen while you’re here to enjoy it.