I had the pleasure of playing in the James Wood High School Athletic Association’s annual golf tournament last weekend. I try to make it out to this one every year and give of my time and money as sort of an apology for the lackluster performance I delivered when I tried to pass myself off as an athlete at this school in the late eighties.

But as I’ve discovered over the two and a half decades that have passed since my time at James Wood, my below-average athleticism didn’t just apply to football, wrestling, track, and cross-country. I’ve since found out that these same underwhelming skills transitioned to my golf game. Just ask anyone who has ever played with me and they will corroborate my story.

This past weekend was no exception. I played with three good friends, Stuart Wolk, Max Anderson, and Dan Argiro. Before you ask if they share my same litheness, let me share with you that Stuart is probably the steadiest golfer with whom I’ve played. Every hole, he was consistently good. Dan was a stud on James Wood’s golf team back in the day and has only gotten better over time. And Max was recently inducted into James Wood’s Athletic Hall of Fame as a two-sport superstar. So no…I don’t share many sports-related similarities with them.

To recap my day of playing a Captain’s Choice format with these gentlemen…we didn’t use any of my drives. In fact, one of my drives ended up five feet behind me. How does that even happen? On the fairway, if one of my shots traveled more than fifty yards, it either found the woods, the water, or the sand. And on the green, it was as if there were oppositely polarized magnets in the hole and my ball, assuring that I would never come close to sinking even the shortest putt.

At the end of the day, we headed back into the clubhouse for lunch and swallowed a huge piece of humble pie from all of our friends who were posting much lower scores than ours. I was unanimously the weak link of our team. Our score was embarrassing. My golf game was humiliating. And I was reminded again and again of just how uncool I am under pressure. But over time, these facts are not what I’m going to remember. I’ll forget our score. I’ll forget that I’m either the world’s worst golfer or the world’s greatest hacker. I’ll forget wasting every mulligan I used. I’ll forget all the logistics of the day’s game.

Here’s what I’ll remember. I’ll remember laughing hysterically as we watched a crow swoop down and steal Dan’s Red Bull and muffin from his cart as he was getting ready to tee off. I’ll remember the banter between Stuart and Max, the likes of which I haven’t heard since witnessing a middle school argument between two 12-year-olds. I’ll remember receiving words of encouragement and advice from Stuart on what it takes to be an effective School Board member. And he should know…he was an excellent one for twenty years. I’ll remember swapping obviously over embellished stories about our glory days and laughing until I almost cried over several ‘remember when’ stories.

That’s life. When we look back, it’s not always what we did that we’ll remember. It’s with whom we did it. Whether they are fantastic moments in our history or times that we wished never happened, we always remember the ones that were there for us. Whether they were helping us celebrate or picking us up when we had fallen or simply riding in a golf cart with us, making jokes…we will remember the people in our lives more than the events.

That’s the beauty of relationships. They trump almost everything else in our lives. We tend to take them for granted, but they are some of our greatest gifts. Our family, our friends, our co-workers, our fellow churchgoers, our favorite waiter or waitress, our clients, our students, our mentors…no relationship is too small or unimportant. They all help build us into the folks that we are. One of my favorite quotes is by Charlie Jones. It reads, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

Engage in relationships. Embrace new friendships. Appreciate the folks in your life. Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while and swap some ‘good ol’ days’ stories. We were built to live life in community. Take a moment today to appreciate the ones that make up yours. It doesn’t matter if you share laughter or you share tears. What’s important is that you make time to share.