Second chances

If you had a chance to try something again, what would you try?

The Today show and several news outlets in the Philadelphia area have run stories recently about a local man who retired from his nearly four-decade-long stint at the U.S. Postal Service to go back to school at Montgomery County Community College and pursue his lifelong dream of playing college baseball.

In the story, Jim Fullan, 56, talks about being mistaken for a coach or a parent, but it was always his dream to get an education and play at the next level. After graduating high school in 1984, Fullan married, joined the Army for two years, and started a family. After a lifetime away, he’s now playing a sport he loves with players less than half his age.

Image by Nataliya Vaitkevich via Pexels.

My own athletic skills have long deserted me, but I must admit to being fascinated by the story and second chances. I’ve heard the question asked differently. Instead of second chances, it’s asked this way: If you could try anything, what would you do? In the 2009 movie, Up In The Air, George Clooney’s character asks this of J.K. Simmons. I can think of a few ideas:

• I’m not sure about going back to play baseball, but I would go back to being a student in a heartbeat, to be on a campus and learning would be very appealing. I have interests in Psychology, Sociology, Theology, History, Political Science, Photography and Graphic Design, and Biology and Astronomy. I could even envision going back and earning a masters of fine arts degree in creative writing.
• I have an entrepreneurial bent and would love to start my own business (with lots of help along the way.)
• Travel around the world.
• Learn to play the piano.
• Spend six months living and working in a new city.
• Lock myself in a bed and breakfast or an airbnb for four to six months and write my book, send my manuscript to a literary agent, and try to get published.

Who knows what the future holds? If you could try anything, what would you do?