Inspiration Blog #1

         The biggest inspiration in my life is a 22 year old Asian-American male that attended Harvard University in Cambridge, MA named Jeremy Lin. His parents were pretty strict at the time when he was younger because you know Asian Parents. They always want you to go to the best schools and become successful so when you get older and will be making thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars you can do whatever you want. After always hearing that lecture from his parents he always wanted to play basketball on the sides of his parents note. Didn’t have to be professionally, but more like as a hobby or something that he can enjoy doing on his free time instead of just studying and working all the time, but if he were given the chance to go professional he would. As he got to know the sport more he started to play and practice hard whenever he had the time in 6-8th grade. He played for his middle school where he just had fun and had the passion to keep playing and getting better. His team made it to the championships when he was in 8th grade and even though they lost, his coach told his that he led the team to the championships. As he graduated his coach told him that he can be the leader of a team and to push until you succeed. Jeremy didn't know what that really meant so he just took those words to the high school he wanted to attend.

The first year in high school he saw a post on a bulletin board saying that there is Junior Varsity and Varsity try outs for the school basketball team. Jeremy couldn't decide which one he should try out so he decided to go to the coach of both teams and ask for some of his advice. Going to the coach he asked him "which team should I try out for?" the coach said "you're a little skinny, but I advise you to try out for the varsity. Let me tell you boy, varsity practice is a little bit more advanced then JV practice, but if you don't make the varsity and I see that you have the power to play I'll put you on the JV squad." So Jeremy tried out and the coach was impressed of what Jeremy could do, but as Jeremy practiced other students started stating some racist slurs such as "china man can't ball and go back to china". As a Christian Asian-American that didn't want to start any trouble the only thing he could do was ignore everything that was happening. Once the school evidenced him playing the sport and seeing that he was better than they imagined they couldn't do anything, but to cheer him on instead of trying to put him down. From his first year on to his fourth year he played and worked hard in basketball while studying his books. His senior year he averaged 21.6 points per game and he also won the division championships for his school. For four years straight he's been passing through racist remarks about him playing basketball, but instead of just quitting, he ignored all of it and it brought him to where he is now.

What I was shocked about in his life was that if he didn't pursue his dream into playing basketball for the NBA he was going to become a Christian Pastor. In 2011 comparing a Christian pastor to a NBA player is almost a million steps away. Most people think that a NBA player is more popular and dominant than a Christian Pastor. Even though he didn't pursue his career in becoming a Christian Pastor, he was still a humble Christian man that took more of his young talents into the NBA where he can only play for a period of time where which he can become a pastor at an older age. Until Jeremy told his parents in his junior year of high school that he played basketball for his school his parents never evidenced him playing until then. As read the year after he told his parents that he played basketball his parents started to come to more of Jeremy’s basketball games and also evidenced him leading the school to a division championship for the first time in 22 years.

          Jeremy Lin has really become my biggest inspiration because no matter what happen in his life he still pushed through to pursue his dreams. After listening to his life story and Christian Testimony I have pushed myself into practicing daily trying to improve my basketball skills while I try to stay on track with my book work instead of ball work. As they all say books before everything. :)