re: Getting old and realizing dreams will never come true...

I don't even know what my dreams were, to be honest.

I am early 40s and have hit a wall this year. I am done with the rat race, I think. I am likely going to pack up shop and move back "home" for a more simple life, and work with my dad.

I make more money than I probably ever dreamed I would, but living where we do is freaking expensive as hell. We could sell our house and buy a house "back home" with acreage, and have cash left over. Private school there is 1/4 the cost of school here. I just can't imagine 25 more years of sitting in the bullshiat meetings like I do now every day.

Be happy with what you have and have accomplished. Billions of people would gladly change places with you.

I achieved the professional goals I had set for myself, but it turned out with that positive came negatives that had been aware of I would have chosen another.

personal life , the miscarriage/divorce for me, eliminated that as a source of joy but I made the best out of the route presented to me


With this stroke I just hope to get better I actually don't think I'll have much of a life after this I can't see myself dating because I cant burden anyone I would care about with the chance it could happen again
I can't imagine ever working a job I find will rewarding on a personal sense or financially like I had before

but I will say I always loved challenges in life
I did it growing up playing sports taking on whatever adventures came at me

with my work I took on challenges and enjoy the satisfaction of overcoming this situation/obstical
for me for however long I have left on this earth that's what I have to look forward to is overcoming the challenge to prove I'm bigger better stronger than the stroke

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And watch a rocket launch in person.

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it's more fun when you're the one aiming it!!!!

(shot a few Honest Johns in Korea and and a Pershing 1a at White Sands)

You need to talk to the 65+ year olds. I'm only 62, but had to "retire" early because of a disability.

I realized my sports dreams weren't realistic when I reached my senior year still just 5'8" & 165 pounds. I never got that two inch growth over a a couple of summers like my 6'2" brother did. I'd never thought about doing anything other than playing football or possibly baseball, before my senior year.

Didn't know what I wanted to do as a college freshman. Started in mechanical engineering. Moved to general studies. Took a journalism class and enjoyed interviewing the head of the department I was covering. After six years of going to college and working some semesters, and just working others, I graduated with a journalism degree. It was 1983 and I only owed a little over $1000 for student loans.

I immediately started working a sales job in Dallas. Six months into that job, I get let go when the company lost part of the territory they covered. I was let go because I was the newest guy there. I took another job three days later. Worked it for a month, didn't like it, and decided I'd take some time and find another job I liked.

It was almost Christmas, and went home that year with no job. Spent the month of January interviewing, and took a job selling advertising. Worked there for 26 years, enjoying the heck out of it. Made good money and lots of great friends that came and went during that time.

I also lucked into a couple of low-paying second jobs covering the Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks and Stars home games. It was my way to see the games up close, without spending money for tickets. I worked for two different electronic media companies during my years in Dallas.

Before teams' websites had game cast in real time, media outlets subscribed to companies like the ones I worked for to get as close to real time scores and stats as was possible back then. Radio, TV and even small newspapers that didn't cover the games themselves, could get accurate scores from a ticker machine our company installed, and eventually, the company's website. The teams all had the ticker machines so they could update the scores of other games going on that night.

The first company was Sports Network. I worked for them from 1986-1997. For all but the fist couple of years, I was their Dallas stringer, responsible for covering the Cowboys, Mavs, Rangers and, eventually, the Stars. There was a ton of stats we kept, plus we called in updates with scores and stats throughout the games. We had a land line installed in the arenas/stadiums.

I asked for, and got, a second pass from the Rangers with "Staff" on it. I brought dependable friends or coworkers that knew sports, and wanted to help me cover games. They'd work with me a few times until I felt they knew the job well enough to do it on their own. I trained four guys like that at the beginning of each season, and gave them the game check when they worked. The first couple of years I did games, I had done them that way too.

Eight or nine years into it, I had gotten tired of doing it, especially the Ranger games. It was just too many games and too long of a drive to Arlington. Guys would tell me their wives wanted them to quit, and I'd have to train someone new for the next season. I did it through 1997 and quit after that Cowboy season.

The second company was SportsTicker, which at one time was owned by ESPN and where they got the scores for the ticker running across the bottom of the screen. A buddy I knew from working the games was doing just the Mavs games, but his wife wanted him to quit doing that. I did an interview over the phone with them and took over for the 1998-99 season.
Dirk, Nash, and I came in the same season, and the rest is history!

By the 2000-01 season the Mavs were a 50 win playoff team. They were that team for 11 straight years. I got to cover them for nine of those years. The owners of SportsTicker sold the company for the third time while I worked for them, and the new owner let all of the reporters go. I was kind of glad because I was in my late 40's and the extended seasons were wearing me down. I was too old to stay up until midnight, then get up at 5:45 am three nights in one week.

The sports reporter job didn't pay well, but I loved doing it. I got nearly all of the fan giveaways that season ticket holders got, I gave most of that to my ad sales job customers, and they loved hearing about the game the night before when I called on them. I sat at the media seats with the radio guys from The Ticket, KRLD, K104, etc., and got to know those guys. Got to know some of the players, Cuban, Don Nelson, Rick Carlise, even some of the other Western conference team players. Used to talk SEC Football with Antoine Walker, Brandon Bass, Marquis Daniels, Stromile Swift, and Robert Horry.

I got to work the 2006 finals when Miami (Dwyane Wade going to the free throw line) beat the Mavs. Got champagne on me in the Heat locker room the night they won Game 6 in Dallas. Saw Alonzo Mourning drink his first post kidney transplant beer that night, and held Wade's Finals MVP trophy.

Never really got to talk long enough with Shaq to tell him I went to LSU, but I did that with Stomile, Bass and the other SEC guys I mentioned. They all knew my dad had season tickets, and I went to three or for games every season. Stomile would look through pictures if I had taken any. This was before phone cameras were any good, so I'm talking about looking through a packet of developed pics.

Never received any fame from it, unless having a reporter home in Germany, point me out on ESPN News, and tell his girlfriend, "That's John, the guy that gave me $50 to get to the airport that night I lost the credit card."

Even if it's not your real job, find something you like to do, maybe as a hobby, and do it.

No wonder you write well.

Thanks for the detailed CV, it was an interesting read.

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Even if it's not your real job, find something you like to do, maybe as a hobby, and do it.

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Thanks for sharing your story!

A goal is a dream with a deadline. Most dreams are just dreams. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. To turn those dreams into reality one must set goals.
Do not be disappointed if you did not set goals for your dreams. Enjoy the dreaming.

Not everyone has the motivation to be Michael Jordan or Tom Brady.
There is only one goal in life and that is to get to heaven. Everything else is a test which determines if you choose heaven or not.

I am 63 and have NO REGERTS

Me first dream was to hook up with a hot sorority girl. Get invited to a grub or mardi gras ball. Ever happened. Never did ski trip.


2nd dream was to train elephants at bush gardens. Never did it