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College Life: Living in the ‘now’ hampered by post-grad plans

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<p>&#8220;Fore&#8221; was the word of the day last Sunday in downtown Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>Children and adults alike meandered through the Osterhout Free Library during the All &#8220;Fore&#8221; Books Mini Golf Classic, hosted by the Rotary Club of Wilkes-Barre, hitting golf balls down makeshift golf greens in friendly competition.</p><p>TL the News Bear, the Times Leader mascot, manned the last hole, greeting participants as they took a stab at getting a hole-in-one to retrieve the grand cash prize.</p><p>It was the kind of event you love to see &#8211; one that brings children, adults and dignitaries together for a relaxed afternoon.</p><p>This day &#8211; and the word &#8220;fore&#8221; &#8211; brought me back to a special time in my life too, for which I was grateful.</p><p>I remember the very first time I set foot on an actual &#8220;big-person&#8221; golf course and heard the word &#8220;fore.&#8221;</p><p>As a 7- or 8-year-old boy, I began my short, but gallant golf career at Four Seasons Golf Club in Exeter, taking lessons from the golf pro.</p><p>My dad and I embarked on this new adventure together, regularly practicing to learn the game and perfect our skills.</p><p>Some days were better than others (for me, that is).</p><p>There was a time or two I crashed the golf cart, even though I had no business operating one at such an age. There were many times where I made a fool of myself hitting the ball so far into the woods that it seemed impossible to find. And there surely were times I looked around to see who was watching, afraid to embarrass myself with my flimsy swing more than anything else.</p><p>While my days on the golf course didn&#8217;t last long, the memories remind me of simple times as a young kid out on the golf course with my dad, when I wasn&#8217;t stuck in the immediacy of the day.</p><p>These days, life is a cycle of e-mails, social media updates, notifications from a dozen or more apps and much more.</p><p>The information streams all day long, causing me to pause activities in order to check the latest and greatest status update or piece of breaking news.</p><p>I&#8217;m especially one of those people guilty of it when out with friends. I think nothing of pausing my conversation with them to check phone updates in detail for blocks of two, five or 10 minutes. It&#8217;s not abnormal to see me typing and talking at the same time &#8211; pleasing both the email recipient with a speedy response and the person in front of me with continued eye contact.</p><p>Not ideal, I know.</p><p>But, it&#8217;s very much my reality &#8211; and the reality of so many others I know.</p><p>The other night even, as I conversed with a group of friends I hadn&#8217;t seen in some time, I was e-mailing, texting and, heck, even tweeting all at the same time, I think.</p><p>The burnt, bubbly pizza at Newtown Caf&#233; in Hanover Township deserved a Facebook post, with accompanying picture, though, didn&#8217;t it?</p><p>My need for that Facebook post was easy to rationalize.</p><p>The famous, ever-oozy beloved pizza is so delectable that I had to share a status update and photo, letting others know that I was the lucky one savoring it at that moment.</p><p>While I love the immediacy of life today, the Osterhout event was a welcome reminder of years ago.</p><p>Here&#8217;s to many more events like the Mini Golf Classic that raise money for the right causes and remind us all of simpler times.</p><p>And next time I bite into a piece of Newtown pizza, maybe I&#8217;ll try to put the phone down.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Mike McGinley is the Times Leader Media Group&#8217;s major accounts executive. Reach him at mmcginley@www.timesleader.com or 570-704-3945.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Around Town: Mini Golf Classic at Osterhout brings to mind simpler times