When I was a kid in the 80's, it was a time of huge muscle-men. I never watched professional wrestling at that time, but I knew who Hulk Hogan was, and I figured he must have been the best. And I had a lot of Masters of the Universe action figures, and there was no more ideal inspirational fictional character than He-Man.
Ideals like these made me wish I would grow up one day to be a strong man. I started lifting weights in middle school and in high school I joined the powerlifting team. In college I began hitting numbers I never dreamed of before. I became exactly what I wanted to be.
But at the same time, I realized that many others did the same. Even though I felt like a superman, I realized I wasn't alone. There were HUNDREDS of others who were also supermen. So even though I was hitting big numbers, I never hit exceptional numbers that made me stand above everyone else. I achieved my goal of being stronger than I ever dreamed of, but my dreams were shorter than what reality dictates is the strongest.
It's kind of like when I was in 4th grade and dreamed of a time where I could make 100 dollars a day and be rich. I achieved that dream, but it didn't make me rich. I became wealthier than I thought possible but realized that my thinking was short of reality.
And I also dreamed of being brilliant and being able to do calculus. I achieved that too. But I realized that millions of others can do calculus and that math has progressed SO far beyond that it's unbelievable. I had to stop pursuing formal math after getting my bachelor's degree because I was not sure I could go further with my abilities.
So I realized that people in general are amazing and can do things I never would have even imagined. I figured if I achieved my goals I'd be at the top of humanity, and I wasn't even close.
But as life continued, I wasn't able to keep all of these goals. I got injured and could no longer lift heavy. My injury eventually healed but work and life got in the way and now I'm probably weaker than a normal man on the street who never lifted a day in his life. But at least I'm not in a wheelchair like Lex Luger, and since I never did steroids I'm not having any issues from side effects from those.
So not only did I learn that fairly normal people typically exceed more than I ever could have imagined as a child, but I also learned that as we age, we'll lose those abilities that we were able to build up in our youth. We eventually return to dust. But what a ride. I'm glad I got to live it. I don't know what's next, but if all goes well, I'm only halfway chronologically through it. What is in the future that I can't imagine now?
