This past Saturday, I turned 40 (as previously mentioned), and this year, I did something different. Â Usually for my birthday, I don’t do much. Â Maybe a small dinner with a couple of friends. Sometimes even less. Â But this year, since forty is one of those “milestone” birthdays, I thought that this year I would do something bigger. Â I invited a few friends to join me for some cosmic bowling. Â After all, everyone loves bowling, right?
I don’t bowl often. Â In fact the last time I bowled was about two years ago at another friend’s birthday. Â But I figured that bowling was a good way to get a bunch of people together, and to have some fun. Â We had different bowling skill levels together, and some people bowled well, and some people… Well the point is that we had different bowling skill levels. Â To me, though that doesn’t matter. You go bowling with a group of friends to cheer each other on, trade some friendly zingers and just have a good time.
The second game of the night is where we made a few realizations. Â First and foremost: bowling is a sport. We came to this sport realization by realizing the pain that wrists and knees were in. Â Until that moment, we all remembered bowling as something fun to do with a group of friends. Â But it turns out that there’s actual athleticism involved in doing it regularly. Â Which is something I suppose we all knew, but had forgotten until the pain started.
When the second match ended, we were all of one mind: we were finished, and did not have another game in us.
It was a great way to ring in my 40s, and was happy to see all the friends who came.
Side note: for those looking at turning 40, just remember…forty feels a lot like thirty-nine.
[pictures by Jessica Nelson and Daisy MacLean]