If I could script it, it would be in the NCAA tournament finals my team would be down by two points in triple overtime with three seconds left, I would come off a screen and hit the game winning three pointer to end the game. Cue the marching band and my teammates running towards me as they lifted me over their heads and sang “for he’s the jolly good fellow”. It would be pandemonium on the court as our fans, friends, and family cheered for us. The icing on the cake would be watching the other team clap for us (as they wept) during the trophy ceremony. I guess as far as last games go you couldn’t beat that scenario.
Unfortunately the last game of my college career didn’t end that way. We were down by twelve in regulation during the first round of our conference tournament. We ended up losing by five points. I fouled out of the game with one minute left and as I walked to the bench I remember thinking to myself this is the last college game I’d ever play again in my life. As I cheered on my teammates with thirty seconds left and slapped the opposing teams hands after the game was over I couldn’t get over the fact that it was my last game.
I was pissed that we lost but I was also pissed that I didn’t do more. I ended the game with some pretty good stats but I kept focusing on the shots I missed, the rebounds I didn’t grab, and the defensive mistakes that I made during the game. The last college game of my career and I felt that I didn’t do everything in my power to help my team win. That stayed with me for the whole bus ride back to my dorm and for the rest of the week. It was that day that the term “play every game like it’s your last”, really stuck with me.
We take today for granted because we assume there will always be a tomorrow. So maybe we don’t go our hardest today because we can make it up the next day, but what if there is no tomorrow? Do you want to go out knowing that the last time you did something you didn’t give it one hundred percent? I tell the players I coach all the time to play each game like it’s the last game they’ll ever play, because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and we can’t all go out the way we script it in our minds.
I think having that mindset in all aspects of our lives would be beneficial. We wouldn’t put things off as much and we would try our best to live in the moment. I read a book a while ago called “The Last Lecture”. It was about a man named Randy Pausch who was a professor at Carnegie Melon and was dying of pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed with only months to live Professor Pausch gave a riveting speech to a crowd of four hundred friends, work collegues, students, and members of his family. He talked about the lessons he learned throughout his life and the lessons he wanted his children (who were very young at the time) to learn from his speech. The video (which is on you tube) didn’t show someone that looked sick or afflicted by a terminal illness, in fact Professor Pausch did pushups on stage to show the crowd that he was feeling fine and not to feel sorry for him. He had one quote that really stuck with me, he said “He’d rather have cancer than get hit by a bus” and that was because with cancer he d still have time to prepare his family for his passing and to spread his word to others. That struck a chord with me, this was a man that knew he was going to die and despite not having a lot of time left on this earth, he was rushing around to make people aware of his story and to follow their dreams. He put one hundred percent into every second that he was granted to continue living.
When I was teaching at Sussex County College I used to talk to students all the time about making the most of their time. We used to do this time management project where the kids would track how many hours in the day they wasted. Some would wake up around twelve or one o clock on the weekends. That’s their whole morning gone. I think about Professor Pausch and all the other people that have left us to soon and how they would give anything to have one more morning to spend with their family and friends.
All my friends and family members wonder how I have so much energy. I wake up early I go to bed late and I repeat that cycle every day. I don’t drink coffee (I used to think it stunted your growth, my mom drinks it all the time and she’s five foot two) and I definitely don’t get the recommended eight hours a night of sleep. To be honest waking up is what motivates me to get out of bed and start my day. I always want to improve on the day before. If I had a great day on Monday I want to make it even better on Tuesday. I talk to people all the time about life. Some of them can start off having a terrible morning and they chalk up the rest of the day as being a waste and others can have a bad morning, rebound from it, and make the most of their afternoon and night.
If this was your last day how would you want it to go? The picture I have on this blog is from about four years ago. I was in a hot gym in Andover NJ at the end of one of my summer basketball camps. I was doing some ball handling moves with one of my former players and having a great time doing what I love, helping others and playing basketball. If I didn’t wake up that next day I know I would of had anything to be sad about. Because I gave that day everything I had and enjoyed every moment of it.
