{"id":23414,"date":"2013-07-21T17:34:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T15:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/?p=23414"},"modified":"2013-07-21T17:39:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T15:39:10","slug":"the-best-time-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/story\/the-best-time-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The best time of my life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"time\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was June 15, and in two days I would be turning thirty. I was insecure about entering a new decade of my life and feared that my best years were now behind me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My daily routine included going to the gym for a workout before going to work. Every morning I would see my friend Nicholas at the gym. He was seventy-nine years old and in terrific shape. As I greeted Nicholas on this particular day, he noticed I wasn\u2019t full of my usual vitality and asked if there was anything wrong. I told him I was feeling anxious about turning thirty. I wondered how I would look back on my life once I reached Nicholas\u2019s age, so I asked him, \u201cWhat was the best time of your life?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Without hesitation, Nicholas replied, \u201cWell, Joe, this is my philosophical answer to your philosophical question:<\/strong>
\n\u201cWhen I was a child in Austria and everything was taken care of for me and I was nurtured by my parents, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was going to school and learning the things I know today, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got my first job and had responsibilities and got paid for my efforts, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong>
\n\u201cWhen I met my wife and fell in love, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe Second World War came, and my wife and I had to flee Austria to save our lives. When we were together and safe on a ship bound for North America, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong>
\n\u201cWhen we came to Canada and started a family, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong>
\n\u201cWhen I was a young father, watching my children grow up, that was the best time of my life.<\/strong>
\n\u201cAnd now, Joe, I am seventy-nine years old. I have my health, I feel good and I am in love with my wife just as I was when we first met. This is the best time of my life.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was June 15, and in two days I would be turning thirty. I was insecure about entering a new decade of my life and feared that my best years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23414"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23426,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414\/revisions\/23426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebanesesaints.com\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}