Quotes

Happy Monday Everyone!  

I love a good inspirational quote!  My love of these quotes comes from my high school basketball team.  Weird, right?  My coach was a gentleman named Paul Rabidoux, and he had a profound effect on my life growing up.  I made the varsity girl's basketball team as a freshman in high school (just by the skin of my teeth mind you), so I had four years on Coach Rabs' (as we called him) team.  Every day when we had practice he would write out a detailed practice schedule that showed us what drills we were going to do, what practice color we should wear, and what the quote of the day was.  He read the quote out loud at the start of each practice and we discussed it as a team when necessary.

Sometimes those quotes were humorous, sometimes inspirational, but they were always timely.  Coach always seemed to sense what we all needed.  Those quotes brought our team together.  We discussed them, laughed about them, argued about the meaning of them, and reminded each other about them in times of need.  It's funny that with those quotes, we learned so much about life, about ourselves, about our teammates, and about others around us.  

Those quotes encouraged us to work hard, try-hard, not give up, stay focused, win gracefully, lose gracefully, be good teammates, develop life-long friendships, laugh sometimes, cry when we needed to, appreciate our gifts, and recognize the gifts in others.  They taught us not to be petty, not to complain, and not to be ungrateful for all that we had.  Most of all though, those quotes taught us that Coach Rabs was someone to lean on.  Someone we could go to when we needed advice or a shoulder to cry on, and someone we could always share a good laugh with.  

Most of us, including me, spent more hours with Coach during the basketball season than we did with our own parents.  We traveled to games with him, sat in the stands with him during JV games, went on road trips, had early morning practices where we shared donuts and OJ, and had holiday and end of season parties and banquets all of which he hosted at school or in the home he shared with his wife and three kids.  He was truly a gift to us all.  Some of my best memories in high school involve coach Rabs and my teammates, many of whom I am still in contact with today. 

I know that Coach was one of the reasons I became a school counselor.  Not because he was one...actually he was an engineer who just happened to be a good basketball coach too...but because of the compassion, he showed to countless young women before me and after, between the lines of the basketball court.  He was one of the people that inspired me to do the same for others.  So now that you know the back story behind my love of inspirational quotes, you know why I've included so many here. 

Here are a few more that I like...including one I just heard while listening to a podcast this morning.  

I hope you've found a little inspiration here this morning.  If you'd like to share one of your favorite inspirational quotes, please feel free to leave it in the comments below.  Have a great week, everyone!  

Mrs. Hempey