What will the real story be?

?I am unwritten, can?t read my mind, I?m undefined. I?m just beginning, the pen?s in my hand, ending unplanned. No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in. No one else can speak the words on your lips. Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open, today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten. ?Natasha Bedingfield

I hit a home run in fifth grade. And our team got to go to World?s of Fun. One had nothing to do with the other, they just happen to be two things that come to mind of when I think of baseball. This sums up the extent of my history with baseball. Which equals my interest in it, really. Minimal.

But when I saw the previews for the movie ?Million Dollar Arm,? I knew I had to see it. It?s a baseball movie about a down and out agent (Jon Hamm) who needs to save his career, travels to India find the next big thing, recruits two young cricket players who know nothing about baseball, and tries to turn them into baseball stars.

My interest isn?t the baseball angle, or cricket, or even Jon Hamm, although that third thing doesn?t hurt. (Actually maybe it?s slightly about Jon Hamm. This is Don Draper from ?Madmen.? Who better to play a charismatic aloof character?ad exec or sports agent?) So, yes, maybe it?s a little about Jon Hamm.

I?m watching the trailer and there it was. Two minutes into a four-minute preview. The real story. The unlikely female love interest said about the cricket players ??they?re also just a couple of great kids. Kids. I mean, they?re far from home. They need to see that you care.? I could almost taste the inspirational journey-to-happy-ending right there.

This is the way it works. In movies and books, at least the good ones. And in other things not made up or embellished, like real life.

I thought about this as our staff was putting together the annual graduation section this week, where we publish photos and information about the future plans of our area graduates. I like reading through the lists, seeing which colleges they choose, or where they will work, what their plans are, and what futures these 17- and 18-year-olds envision for themselves.

The prospects out there for these freshly polished people are limitless. They?re young and capable with freedom?no baggage, no responsibilities, no obligations, no debt?virtually nothing holding them back. Their futures are unwritten.

Odds are, they?ll never be in this situation again. And I wonder if they?ll figure out their real stories sooner?or later?

Life?s going to happen. I guess with time on my side (or is it still on their side?) I have a different perspective of what exactly that means. But through all the chaos and expectations and demands that are going to tumble down on them as they get on with it all, I hope they keep an eye on the empty book they?re holding onto as they leave high school. And that they use a pencil in it, not a pen. And allow themselves some erasing now and again.

Is this the time to say life?s like baseball? I never hit another home run, so I?d have to say no, not in my case anyway. Maybe life is like a story that appears to be about baseball.

Either way, all we know is at some point it?s completely unwritten, at another it will probably need to be rewritten. And eventually the real story will surface. Then you can be sure you?ll almost taste the inspirational journey-to-happy-ending right there.

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