March Madness

Today is the first day of March Madness!

There’s a bit of lore that men schedule vasectomies the day before so they have a legitimate reason to spend the weekend on the couch watching games. Others head to Vegas. As for me, it’s a work day — but that didn’t stop me from putting the games on the TV in my office. The brilliant thing about YouTube TV is the multi-view feature: four games at once, no channel flipping required.

Growing up, I used to cut the bracket out of the newspaper, hang it on my bedroom wall, and fill it in as the tournament unfolded. I’d leave it up for a full year before taking it down when the next one came around. This year, I decided to bring the tradition back — printed a bracket and hung it on my office door.

Except “printed” turned out to be generous. I searched for a printable bracket, clicked the top result, and got a full history of the tournament. Paragraphs of commentary. Context I didn’t ask for. Somewhere buried beneath all of it — the actual bracket. One click used to mean scissors and newsprint. Now it means scrolling past three ads and a Wikipedia summary before you find what you came for. Progress, they call it.

But here’s the thing: March Madness has a way of putting everything in perspective. When work frustrations crept in today, I caught myself mid-spiral and made a conscious choice — Nope. Not today. I am not going to let this spoil my mood. Back to the games. Back to the bracket on the door. Back to something that just feels good.

Sometimes that’s enough.

What’s a small tradition or ritual you’ve reclaimed as an adult that still carries the same joy it did when you were young — and what does it say about what you actually need?