When I was still a graduate student at UC Davis, I shadowed a neurologist for a fellowship organized through the NIH. I remember this one patient with dementia very vividly. She was a former lawyer and her facility with words has slowly deteriorated because of her neurodegeneration. She seemed desperate for a cure and I could tell the amount of anguish she was in through her plead with the doctor to find a mechanism to reverse her condition.
This got me thinking about my own relationship with some of the skills I’ve learned throughout my life. Tennis for one thing: I started playing tennis relatively late for a competitive player. I think I peaked when I was around the age of eighteen, or my senior year of high school and freshman year of college. When I play tennis today as a thirty-six year old, I am a fraction of what I used to be in terms of skill. I get tired much more easily, I miss shots that I used to make, and I’m just generally not as consistent as I used to be.
These states can feel quite frustrating at times. In fact, I don’t truly know how to deal with the frustration that bubbles up when I get into a series of misses. I think it’s one of the harsh realities of life that we start off young and plump and many of us have the opportunity to watch that initial vitality decline with age. I don’t really know if there’s a viable solution to this. I don’t think there is.
Tennis for me today is no longer something that I find much enjoyment out of. Today, this sport is more about the opportunity to meet people and forge bonds, especially as I’m now in a new city of Los Angeles. All good things in life are ephemeral.
The Ivory Tower 
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