Ready to hear an old guy tell all these youngsters what they should be doing with their lives? Good because today Colin leverages his age and experience to tell all the young people out there why they need to cancel wedding season.
Folks in their 20's are all anticipating summer when they want to go on big outdoor adventures but they have also been invited to like a dozen weddings.
Well THE ROCK FIGHT is here to tell you to cancel those destination wedding plans that you don't really want to attend anyway, and enjoy your summer! Because pretty soon, you won't have the time that you have now.
And you won't just hear it from Colin because his wife (the original) Carli is here to help.
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:02):
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak out truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head. I'm Colin True, and today I'm here to bestow upon you the wisdom of my years and encourage you to enjoy the upcoming summer on your own terms. And no matter what you do this summer, avoid weddings at all costs. But before we get to that, I need you to open up the podcast app where you are listening to this and give the rock, fight a five star writing and then write a quick little review. Something simple like this podcast is proof there was good in this world and it's worth fighting for. Or hope is just like a rock fight, a good thing and no good thing ever dies. Whoever writes the best review will get to come on the show and say hi to everyone who didn't even submit a comment. Thank you for listening and for supporting the rock fight. Alright, let's start the show. Welcome,
Chris DeMakes (00:52):
Fight, rock Fight.
Colin (00:57):
Okay, fair warning. Today I am allowing myself to embrace being a little bit older and a little bit wiser. And because of that, anyone out there listening to this who's on the younger side, you can learn from my mistakes and experience because folks, it's April. That means that outside time for more than just skiing is coming to every nook and cranny of those of us that live in the northern Hemisphere. But if you're of a certain age, it also means that wedding season is almost here. Now, before I go any further, I want to introduce you to my wife. This is my wife Carly, who was pretty sick when I made her do this with me. So do you remember when we first got married a million years ago? Are we both old by the way? Are we old?
Carli (01:37):
Yes, we were both very old.
Colin (01:39):
You got to speak up a lot. I know you're sick, but you got to speak up.
Carli (01:42):
Yes, we are both very old
Colin (01:44):
This summer. Carly and I will mark our 25th wedding anniversary, but if you know us well enough, you'll know that we'll probably forget it until sometime during the afternoon of the actual day. I was interviewing Patty O'Connell right around Valentine's Day and he had just done a podcast for outside about doing adventuring stuff with your partner and I was like, did you celebrate Valentine's Day? And he's like, of course I did. And I'm like, oh my God. I told him how we routinely forget our anniversary and he was blown away that that was an actual thing.
Carli (02:18):
Yeah, no baby, every day is Valentine's Day with you.
Colin (02:21):
That's true, that's true. That's definitely going to make it in the podcast. Oh, and while we're here, we, regarding Patty, you may have heard him say on this podcast or on the outside podcast that his wife is also named Carly. But look, my Carly and I got married probably about the time that Patty and his Carly were like in second grade or something. So my Carly wins and is the original Carly remember that? Anyway, there's a point to me bringing the original Carly into this episode, but let me first point out the fact that both of us admitted to being old. However, neither of us is embarrassed by our age getting older rules. If you're our age and that embarrasses you, you're honestly doing it wrong. Living longer means you've learned more things and that means you have a little more figured out about the world, some more mistakes to learn from a few more wins under your belt.
(03:07)I've come to the realization that 80% of life is getting older and reflecting back on your younger self with utter disdain and embarrassment and what a dumb ass you have been this entire time until this exact moment and the realization that knowing that 10 years from now I'm going to look back and realize what a dumb ass I am now, it never really ends until we die, and that's just reality. But it's also why the original Carly and I have the qualifications and experience for you to really listen to us because here's the point of today's episode. Yeah,
Carli (03:36):
Yeah. I mean overall I'm anti wedding, so I mean I'm just going to lay that out there.
Colin (03:41):
If you're in your twenties, put your personal adventures over all of those weddings this summer. Now I may lose you after I say this because I would've run out of the room as fast as possible when I was your age if someone had said this to me. But here's what you don't understand. When you're young, you have no real sense of time and your twenties are when you feel like a grownup and you think that you know what you're doing, but you actually may know less than you did when you were a kid. When we first got married, what did we do every weekend? For the first few years
Carli (04:12):
On the weekend, that was the best time we would go up into the white mountains and hike every single weekend. We would wake up early, get our gear on, get in the car, and then do a hike. It was so amazing.
Colin (04:25):
Yeah, that's all true. And yet we still squandered so much time on stuff that didn't matter. We were living in an apartment that we probably hated. But looking back on it, it was perfectly fine. And other than our dog and jobs, we had no responsibilities. We could go anywhere and do anything that was in our means, but even then we thought that we were so busy that we had no time. Do you still feel like even though we have those good memories, that we maximized our time in our early twenties as a young couple together?
Carli (04:54):
No, of course not. Absolutely not. No. We were stupid. We bite into societal norms which are buy your house, have babies, be close to family. And we thought that was the right thing to do and we totally wasted our twenties.
Colin (05:13):
And if I could go back to 1999, I would slap myself across the face forever thinking that because we had no idea what time was back then, I'm sure we were busy, but the amount of time I wasted when compared to my life today, oh my God, it makes me sick to think of what we could have done. And that's why you need to avoid these upcoming weddings. If you're in your twenties and single or recently married are kid less and just out there living your life, this is the time to go and do shit. And these parasites who want you to kill an entire summer weekend at their wedding are working to destroy that for you. Now to be fair, there are definitely people in your life whose wedding you're going to want to attend at all costs. I'm not saying that all weddings are bad, but I recall that era of my life when it seemed like everyone had gotten engaged the same time.
(05:58)And for a few years it was wedding after wedding. And these days you guys have to deal with the people you barely know or inviting you to destination weddings. That is bonkers to me because you also have trails. You could be hiking or running or riding and you have the entire summer in front of you. And it won't always be that way. Maybe you won't pull the trigger on kids or other responsibilities as quickly as we did, but it's coming. It's unavoidable because your thirties are coming and they're going to be kind of a dangerous decade. Remember when you got into your mid twenties and you realized how dumb you were as a teenager and in your early twenties when you get into your thirties, you go up to another level, you have a full decade of being adult behind you and why you can generally be trusted to make good choices in your life because you have some life experiences and have gained some wisdom.
(06:49)People in their thirties have the delusion that they now have at all figured out that there's not much left to learn. I used to be a dumb ass, but now I have learned the era of those ways and I'm good now, I did this myself, but no, you're not good. The hits keep coming and the lessons never freaking stop. By the time you get to your forties, you appreciate all that you learn. But it's only then that you start to reckon with that fact that it's a constant fall down and get back up fest until we die. I'm 48 and I'm now dealing with the fact that I have an adult child. No one tells you when they're little that you're going to one day have to shut down all the parental instincts that define your existence for 18 years and it's a total mind fuck.
(07:29)And look, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't go back if I was given the choice. I like knowing what I know now and knowing that I'll know more in the future. But I also know that we had a window in our twenties to do way more badass shit than we actually did. And I know that this summer, all those wedding invitations you've received are going to limit what you can do. And among those invites are surely one or two that have invited you somewhere really far away, which means that in addition to your last summer weekend, you'll have to burn vacation time and cash you probably don't have. And that could be for someone you don't even like that much. Are you ready for that? To forego a weekend camping trip to the mountains? Maybe that trail you've wanted to ride, but it's kind of far away.
(08:08)So you need a long weekend or even a full week to justify the trip. Or maybe that money that could have gone towards your first trip out west or down to Baja where you could have had some sort of life-changing experience forged from adventure sports, mountains or beaches and local hallucinogens. But no, you feel guilty because Sarah from your 10th grade social studies class invited you to The Bahamas for their wedding and not to get too dark, but there are definitely a few weddings you've been invited to this summer that will end in divorce. I'm sorry, that's a fact. It's just reality. And when you see Sarah from 10th grade social studies talking about her painful divorce on social media like four years from now, all you're going to do is think back to that giant bill from that Bahamas trip that you went on instead of a four day float down the rogue river, the regrets pile up as much as the credit card bills.
(08:55)So trust this old couple. It's not a cliche to say the time is the most precious resource you have and the older you get, your time becomes less your own and more the property of everyone else. Your boss, your kids, your aging parents. When you're a kid, everyone is jealous of you. You know why? It's not because you get to play with toys or play sports or video games. It's because your obligations are at the lowest they'll ever be. And everyone who watches a 12-year-old sit there and burn hours scrolling. TikTok is jealous as hell and mad that the kid doesn't understand why. And hey, if you are planning one of these weddings, here's some advice. Go smaller. You and your guests will ultimately appreciate it. Here, let my wonderful wife sum it up for you. Of course. How awesome was our
Carli (09:38):
Wedding? Our wedding was very awesome.
Colin (09:40):
Why was it awesome?
Carli (09:43):
It was low key. It was just people that we love coming together to celebrate us. We didn't have high expectations for how people should act, what people should wear, what people should eat. It was just people in a place that we loved. It was a destination wedding. It kind
Colin (10:00):
Of was, but it was like we went tubing afterwards.
Carli (10:04):
It was low run destination like Appalachia destination. No, but it was great. It represented who we were at the time and that was my takeaway from it. But
Colin (10:18):
We would not have been mad if no one came.
Carli (10:21):
No, no. In fact, no people didn't come and we weren't mad. So was like 10 people there. And guess what? We got over it. It's totally
Colin (10:30):
Fine. And then we got drunk and played asshole afterwards.
Carli (10:32):
We did. We did. Everyone got very drunk.
Colin (10:35):
Yeah, it was a good wedding. Yeah. So you got that. Everyone just RSVP. No, thank you. That's the show for today. But before you move on to that next podcast, please rate and review the rock fight wherever you are listening, and then head to rock fight.co and sign up for news from the front, the official newsletter of the Rock fight. Just head there and click join the mailing list. The Rock Fight is a production of rock Fight LLC. I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening and here to take us out. It's my friend. It's your friend Krista Makes with the rock fight fight song. We'll see you next time. Rock fighters. Rock
Chris DeMakes (11:09):
Fight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Here we go into the rock. Fight where we speak on truth. Stay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree. We talk about human power, outdoor activities and pick bikes about topics that we find interesting. Black culture, music, the latest movie reviews, ideas in for the head. This is where we speak our truth. This is where we speak our truth. Welcome to welcome.
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