“Everything we achieve is ephemeral. We have it, and then the next second it’s gone. You had that record, and you may lose that record. Or you may defend it now and lose it in two years all over again.

But let me tell you something: You are capable of so many amazing things. I hope, as you grow older, that this gives you a sense of peace. I, for so much of my life, have had something to prove. But I think you have a real chance of knowing you don’t have to prove a single thing to anyone. If it should come to pass that you feel the need to go do

“Falling in love is really quite simple,” she says. “You want to know the secret? It’s the same thing we are all doing about life every single day.” I look to her. “Forget there’s an ending.”

wondered why anyone would want to build anything out of sand, when tomorrow it will be gone, and you’d have nothing to show for your day.

But how many players would be okay knowing they were second place? He takes to it well, though. Which is about the highest compliment I can think of. I’m not sure there is a greater strength.”

“What doesn’t kill you…might still kill you.”

You could not pay me enough money to go back to being seventeen. When I was seventeen, my talent was all potential and no proof. The world was a giant set of unknowns, barely any past to pull from.

My older self knows that you must stop—in the middle of the chaos—to take in the world around you. To breathe in deeply, smell the sunscreen and the rubber of the ball, let the breeze blow across your neck, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. In this respect, I love the way the world has aged me.

And I wonder for a moment why I have spent all my time worried about losing things, when there is so much here.