Scrawny and Not Pictured

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of our Nation’s Independence, but it also marks one of the personal highlights of my life. It was on this day, like many a Fourth of July before it, that I ventured out—insect-like—to play in a mud volleyball tournament. I was good too. Small but good, like an elf who plays in a league. We won some, we lost some, and then we went home and got cleaned up for fireworks. And still I did not know.

I didn’t know that it was the single greatest moment of my life.

I didn...