We waited at the curb with our big packs at our feet, cars backed up in front of us, dropping off passengers, picking some up. It took a while for my buddy’s wife to make her way through it but she made it. We threw our packs in the trunk and jumped in the car.

Looking for my birth certificate, I dug a  dusty box out of the closet, and started to go through it. I failed to find my birth certificate, but I found a birthday card that my mom wrote to me, probably when I was at Notre Dame. “I am proud of the man that you have become,” she wrote to me.

A baseball player who makes it past Little League may get the honor of choosing a walk-up song. This is the tune that gets played over the public address system as the player strides to the plate to hit. Some players choose their favorite song, or one that pumps them up. Some make it a joke.