Perfect 10

“Life is precious, every moment you get with someone is a moment that’s blessed, really blessed.” – Lauren Hill

Michael Jordan scored 32,292 career points. This year alone, James Harden has scored over 2,100 points while LaMarcus Aldridge has scored over 1,600. In her brief college career, Lauren Hill scored 10 points. Yet, I don’t know if a more courageous 10 points has ever been scored as those 10 points scored by a Division III college athlete. Lauren Hill was only 19 years old when she died last week to brain cancer, but not before inspiring the many who knew her and the many that would never get to know her but had the privilege of hearing her story.

Lauren Hill, for those who do not know the story, was a freshman at Mt. Saint Joseph University. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor about a year before she was to attend college. The worst of prognosis was given when it was determined that treatments were not going to work and she was given just two years to live. Think about that for a moment. Think back to when you were 17 or 18 years old. The world is practically thrown at your feet, everyone telling you that the future holds no boundaries and whatever you desire in life you shall receive through hard work and determination. That was not the reality for Lauren Hill. I have no idea how I would have responded at that same age to such devastating news, but I doubt I would have responded with such grace as Lauren. I’m sure there were moments, maybe many, of tears, anger and despair. But, in the end, those moments did not define her. She did what any athlete and any human being is programmed to do; she fought back. And she won. If you don’t think she won, then you have never heard the words of Stuart Scott.

Lauren Hill went on to play college basketball with a little help from the NCAA, moving up her team’s schedule to accommodate Hill’s deteriorating health. In her first game in front of 10,000 fans, many of those who came to be in attendance because of Hill’s story, she scored 4 points against Hiram College. She scored her first layup with her non-dominant left hand because the tumor had affected her right. She would go on to score the first and last points of the game. Lauren Hill played the game she loved until her body could no longer keep up with her spirit. She managed to play four games and score five layups during her brief college career, five layups that were much more than just points on a scoreboard. During her struggles with cancer, while she was fighting to stay healthy enough to be on the court,  Hill was raising money and awareness for cancer research while spending precious moments with family and  friends. During all this she inspired thousands

Some careers, if they are extremely fortunate enough, will span the 19 years of Lauren’s life. Very few of those careers will have the same impact as Lauren’s. It is a testament to someone who was given no choice on how her life was going to end, but the choices she made during her life were impactful to many. Most of us, I included, wake up on many Monday mornings wishing we could fast forward to Friday because, hey, work and life are hard sometimes. I don’t think Lauren ever wanted to fast forward through a single day of her life, even on her hardest day as I’m sure there were many.

One of the greatest achievements an athlete can do is inspire. Without inspiration, playgrounds would be devoid of a future that today is filled with dreams; without inspiration, we would not strive to be better every time we fall; without inspiration, we would not have what Lauren embodied so well in life, the human spirit. Lauren Hill will not be remembered by any statistical record. But the 10 points she scored during her college career are some of the most perfect 10 points to ever be recorded. Lauren Hill may have lost her battle with cancer, but she won by how she lived her life.