South Carolina Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Don't Ever Give Up

Posted 07/25/08

Those of you who know me know that I am a huge sports fan… nah, make it a sports junkie. For those of us who “eat, sleep and breathe” college basketball (Go Orange!) and have a true appreciation of legends, inspirations and the history of sports this is an important week. It’s Jim Valvano week. On March 4, 1993, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer, Jim Valvano was awarded the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at ESPN’s first annual ESPY Awards.

His acceptance speech is nothing short of amazing. I’m going to cheat a little on the blog today and share some of the highlights with you. As you read you will see what an inspiration that Jimmy V has been to me – several of his points in the speech below have been uttered by yours truly in speeches across South Carolina and across the country. Jimmy V was talking about his fight with cancer, but so much of what he says applies to each and every one of us, every single day!

“I can't tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever. But, as it was said on the tape, and I also don't have one of those things going with the cue cards, so I'm going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That's the way it goes. Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too…

I'm a very emotional and passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. 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…

I always have to think about what's important in life to me are these three things. Where you started, where you are and where you're going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day... It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it… I talked about my family, my family's so important. People think I have courage. The courage (is) in my family…

I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.

(My) motto is "Don't give up, don't ever give up." That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That's important to me too. I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”

Thank you Jimmy V! We miss you – you continue to be an inspiration to so many. To my friends in the field… I challenge us to listen closely to the advice above. “Don’t give up, don’t’ ever get up.” We’ve got some work to do. Now, go out and there and get busy!