Jim Valvano – better known as Jimmy V.

Jimmy V was a successful college basketball coach. Most famously known for leading the heavy underdog NC State to the 1983 NCAA National Championship. I can still see him running around that court – hands in the air while smiling and cheering. The biggest advice he had for his basketball teams, served him well when in 1992 he was diagnosed with cancer. “Don’t Give Up – Don’t Ever Give Up”. He implored his players to believe in themselves, not the newspaper stories. Not the TV sportscasters. In themselves. That’s how they could overcome. The underdogs could stand on the winners platform. Cancer, marital troubles you’re going through, work problems, financial problems. Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up.

Jimmy V actually gave us a wealth of quotes during his battle.

“If you laugh, you think and you cry. That’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special”. Experience our emotions, don’t hide them. Don’t fear them. Experience them.

“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul”. We have so much of us that is so bigger than what we are going through. Never ever forget that.

“Time is very precious to me. I don’t know how much I have left and I have some things I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too”. None of us truly know how much time we have left. None of us. My Drs may think they have somewhat of an idea. But they honestly don’t. So let’s remember. You remember. I’ll remember. Let’s always try to impact others. In a great way. A positive way.

So. Live life. Love life. Experience life.