- Outdoor columnist Ben Smith looks back on 2024, writing that it was a year full of the greatest lessons he’s ever learned.
I’ve started this article several different times only to delete it and begin again. Trying to find the words to put a bow on 2024 has been harder than I imagined. It shouldn’t be. I’ve written an end of the year article just like this one several years in a row now. The overall theme is usually pretty similar. A lot of hunting, a lot of baseball, and a year’s worth of laughs. And there will be plenty of that to discuss in here, but this year has been as difficult to navigate as any year that I can remember.
Our family essentially kicked the year off with my wife killing her first deer in over twenty years. Almost as fun as watching your kid kill a deer, it was a moment that I doubt I forget any time soon. And it’s a good thing I could see, because after she pulled the trigger, I certainly didn’t hear anything for about two days. I made the rookie mistake of leaning against the rail of the shooting house looking through the binoculars with the muzzle of her rifle right next to my head. To her credit, she made the two-hundred-yard shot look pretty easy.
Amy’s deer marked the end of a long and miserable deer season for me. The season wasn’t bad as far as success goes, but the actual hunting part was horrible. I couldn’t sit or stand for more than about five minutes at a time without my back tightening up and sending pain shooting down my leg. Several trips to the doctor later and I found myself in an operating room the first week of February. This was 2024’s first challenge. It also marked the first time that I’d missed coaching a game since 2015 when our middle daughter was born. Back surgery certainly wasn’t something that I had on my 2024 Bingo list. The surgery went well, and the recovery process began along with baseball season being in full swing.
Our season rocked along with high expectations after returning the majority of a team that finished third in the country a year before. We’d play like a national contender for a few games and like the Bad News Bears for a few games. Personally, I felt more disconnected throughout the season than ever before due to my ongoing recovery. There were only a few things that I could physically do that wouldn’t upset my wife and my doctor.
As we entered the postseason, I finally got my wheels back under me. And so did our team. We started playing like the team that everyone expected and tore through our conference tournament on the way to a fourth straight conference championship of some sort. We rode that wave right through a regional and back to the NAIA College World Series. It was the first time in school history to make back-to-back trips. All the while my heart was being tugged in different directions.
Just down the road from our stadium, my father-in-law laid in a hospital bed. He’d been in a battle with cancer over the last year and his fight was nearing the end. When I left Hattiesburg for the World Series, I wasn’t sure that we’d see each other this side of Heaven again. The entire time my body was in Lewiston, Idaho, my heart was in a room at Forrest General Hospital. We finished up our run at the World Series and I flew back home as quickly as possible to be with family. We got one last good visit together before he died three days later. This was the second big challenge of 2024.
Following my father-in-law’s death, I felt pretty lost. The things that I enjoyed didn’t give me much pleasure. I fished some, but it felt as much like a chore as it did enjoyment. The month of June and most of July went by like a blur. Everything felt out of place. Then it got worse. My last remaining grandparent, my grandmother on my father’s side, passed away. Having had grandparents all of my life there was now a weird hole. If things felt out of place before, they certainly did now. And thus began my third big challenge for the year.
Maybe you’re thinking by now, “Only three big challenges in a year?” Well, of course there were several more challenges, but to me these were the ones that stood out the most. Pretty much anything else to this point wasn’t going to matter in ten years, which is how I try to gauge the importance of events. If it’s not going to matter years from now, it’s probably not big enough to stress over.
As I trudged through the remainder of summer, I was faced with one of the biggest decisions of my professional life in early August. The choice of whether, or not, to keep coaching baseball. Baseball had been my life since I was five years old. After plenty of prayer and consultation with my real boss (wife), I decided to move on from baseball into full time administration. As tough as the year had already been, walking away from baseball was just as hard as any of the other challenges. Almost six months later, I still feel confident that it was the right time. I’m sure when spring arrives, and the season gets fired up, it will be tough to watch from the bleachers, but for now I’m enjoying the extra time spent with family.
Deer season couldn’t have arrived at a better time. I needed something to take the edge off and hunting is usually my time for peace and tranquility. However, the chaos of life has pretty much put deer season on the backburner for most of the year. To make matters worse, our camp was hit by the storms a week ago and we are missing half of the roof at the house. Minor in comparison to the rest of 2024, but the cherry on top. At the time of writing this, I’m two deer in for the season so there’s plenty of catching up to do.
This has all seemed like a doom and gloom finale for 2024, but I assure you that it’s not. If anything, 2024 has been a year full of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned. The most important lesson learned is spend time with those that you love. We never know what tomorrow will bring so live without regret. Now, time to get back in the woods and finish strong!
Ben Smith
