During the tournament, NC State was nicknamed the "Cardiac Pack" because of all of their close finishes. Even when NC State was losing, Jim Valvano would find a way to win. For instance, he was the first coach to tell his players to foul the other team towards the end of games, a seamlessly absurd strategy at the time. Today, this tactic is what causes the end of basketball games to take forever! If you are unfamiliar with this strategy, it prolongs the end of a game for the losing team by forcing the winning team to shoot free throws. This in turn allows the losing team to catch up or even take the lead if the winning team misses their free throws. Below is the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary titled "Survive and Advance" that you can watch if you are more interested in Jim Valvano and NC State's classic run through the 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Although Valvano overcame many roadblocks during the tournament, one more appeared in his life that took a much greater effort to defeat. Ten years after hoisting the trophy, Valvano was diagnosed with cancer. If his national championship journey wasn't evidence of his magnificent perseverance, his battle with cancer sure was. One of his most prominant moves in his fight against cancer was creating the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. He announced it's establishment at the 1993 ESPYs, while giving an acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe award. Below is the speech. I urge you to listen to all of it because it is very inspirational. If you don't want to though, you can click around the 9:25 mark to hear some familiar words.
All in all, Valvano's famous line, "Don't give up, don't ever give up," has been a mantra for me in my life. It took me a long time to realize though the difference between giving up and quitting.
Throughout my life, I have found that quitting is the hardest thing for me to do. I have always strived to give everything 110%. My "don't quit" mindset was probably engraved into my head through athletics. I played three sports in high school and quitting was something no coach tolerated. Whether it's not finishing a sprint through the line or giving in to fatigue, quitting was a no-no in sports. One of my coaches used to say, "Good enough isn't good enough." I translated this mentality into everything I did, whether it was exercising or doing homework. After graduating high school, I realized I had taken the "don't quit" mindset too seriously. It created an enormous sense of pride within me, and this affected my relationship with God.
Instead of listening to what God wanted me to do with my life, I chose what I wanted. I didn't give him any control. He probably was trying to tell me that I needed to spend more time with my friends. However, my pride blinded me. I had a better relationship with my sports and homework than I did with God and my friends. I now realize how important friendship is. A good analogy of what I am trying to talk about is Jesus. Jesus knew he had to stop living at some point, but he never gave up on God. Jesus could have been selfish and told God he wasn't going to die for humanity. He could have followed his own ambitions instead of what God wanted him to do. However, his relationship was so strong with God that he trusted God's plan for him to die. I shouldn't have been so headstrong about succeeding in sports and doing well on homework. Those were good goals, but God had other plans for me as well that I just couldn't see.
Now that I am in college, I am trying to trust God's plan more instead of my own. Jesus says in John chapter 14 verse 1,
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."
While college can be stressful trying to balance academics and a social life, I feel at peace when I trust God. Therefore, I challenge you to build your trust with God. This can start by just talking to him by yourself, whether it's during breakfast, walking to class, or before bed. While we may think we know what we want in our lives, God has greater plans. We just have to talk to him and listen for an answer. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll heave up a prayer, and God will dunk it home for you. Just don't give up. Don't ever give up.
Hopefully the song for the week will make you happy. Have a great day!
