My 3rd Act - June 2026
Tennis and Friendship
June 2026 Issue
By Melinda Rooney
Is there anything more iconic—
or frankly more stereotypical—in retirement
than picking up an activity like tennis?.
Life in the Lowcountry put this game squarely in front of me from the word go. And what an experience it has been so far.
I’m not a novice when it comes to tennis. In fact, at the tender age of 40-something—when both of my mid-teen children were driving and becoming amazingly self-sufficient—I started taking lessons at our neighborhood club. It was convenient, available nights and weekends, and I figured I could work off both the stress of the workday and a few of those unnecessary workday calories by smacking a few balls around for an hour or so.
What I didn’t expect was to find my people.
A small group of us became close, and we simply had fun. We knew where our paychecks came from; they did not, nor would they ever, come from playing tennis. Our expectations of winning anything were quite low, but tennis gave us something else entirely: laughter, escape, camaraderie, competition, and the ability to communicate through a common language.
The surprising part? I was never an athlete growing up. Running a mile felt like too much of a task—certainly nothing I ever considered doing voluntarily. I was never particularly competitive either. I was far more comfortable waving anonymously from the crowd than participating in anything myself. So, discovering tennis in my second act came as a genuine—and happy—shock.
Maybe what drew me in was that tennis distracted me from the exercise itself. Instead of focusing on the discomfort of making my body move, I was concentrating on the game—the strategy, the problem-solving, the anticipation, and connection.
Fast forward to my third act, where, if I want to—and many weeks I do—I can play every single day with the most amazing group of women. I feel closely connected to many of these ladies because we not only share tennis, but also much of life itself—births, deaths, travel, family drama, and everything in between. It’s inevitable when you spend so much time with people. But again, it’s that shared language of tennis that has strengthened connections that I’m convinced might otherwise have faded without the shared experience of the game.
Another surprise? Somewhere deep inside, there was a competitor waiting to surface, and I can honestly say I’m impressed when “she” makes an appearance. I get excited to see just how well “she” might actually perform!
And while I still feel most comfortable standing on the sidelines in some parts of life, when it comes to tennis, I want to be in the thick of it all, enjoying that I can still play a game, get some exercise, and share this common language with a truly remarkable group of people.
We are having a blast discovering new parts of ourselves long after we thought we were fully formed. Maybe that’s part of what makes the third act feel so special. My husband and I often describe our lifestyle here in the Lowcountry as “living in a bubble.” And perhaps we are. But it’s a pretty wonderful bubble—one filled with friendship, movement, competition, community, and purpose—and it’s a bubble I have absolutely no desire to pop.
Melinda Rooney is a freelance writer whose roots stretch from the New York–Connecticut area to the Carolinas. A wife, mother, and grandmother, she raised her family in Charlotte, N.C., before settling into Lowcountry life with her husband Bob in 2023. An avid tennis player, she now enjoys writing about the people, places, and stories that inspire her.