A Letter to My Younger Self

By Robert Bouvier Murray

This book is a collection of letters from ex-student athletes giving advice to their younger selves about making their transition from high school to college and beyond. It is through these letters, as they communicate with their younger selves, that present student athletes will be able to relate to their stories and gain insight and understanding of what it takes to succeed in this phase of life as a student athlete. Many of us are away from home for the first time, and we are still being shaped and learning who we are as individuals. This book is to bring about awareness and to inspire student athletes and students to strive to be and do their best. Imagine how much frustration could be avoided if we were to learn from each others life lessons. Who better to speak to your younger self than you?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546205654

Robert Bouvier Murray

My name is Robert Bouvier Murray, and I am fifty-two years of age. My wife, Michelle, of twenty-six years and I have three daughters, Chimelle, Payje, and Mia. I have two grandsons, Josiah, age seven, and Kolton, age one. I played football at the University of Texas at El Paso, and I am the founder and president of Student Athlete Transition Symposium, or STATS. STATS is a program I began a few years ago that consists of ex-student athletes who mentor and talk to present student athletes about their transition from high school to college and beyond so that it may be a successful one through enlightening them with our own life stories as student athletes in high school and college. I have a God-given mandate and a passion to see students and student athletes succeed in the classroom and in their competitive sport.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2017 Robert Bouvier Murray. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/19/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-0566-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-0564-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-0565-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017913124

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Robert Bouvier Murray

Chapter 2 - Kimble Anders

Chapter 3 - David Binder

Chapter 4 - Roger Brooks

Chapter 5 - Kirk Collins

Chapter 6 - Rickie Evans

Chapter 7 - Harry Hickerson

Chapter 8 - Larry G. Linne

Chapter 9 - Bethel McCloud

Chapter 10 - Jennifer Smit

Chapter 11 - Victor Stagliano

image%201.jpg

Robert Murray speaks with student athletes of the University of South Dakota football team

Introduction

My name is Robert Bouvier Murray. Most of my friends call me BouBae. I consider you a friend now that you have taken the time to purchase my book, and I thank you for your support.

You might be wondering why I would write a letter to my younger self.

As I lay across my bed watching the 2004 NFL draft and having my own pity party, I suddenly realized that I had grown accustomed to this annual ritual of mourning a career—my dream of playing in the NFL.

I love my family, and I would not trade them for anything, but the dream, my dream that first began when I was eight years old, was no longer. This dream that lasted until I was twenty-six years of age, I was still mourning years later. Enough. That’s what I told myself. You have to move on! Stop wondering about what you could have done better, more of, or differently to have increased your chances of playing in the NFL. Enough!

It was at that very moment that I asked God, How can I stay involved in athletics and help other promising student athletes avoid what I’m feeling? I took a long, hard look at the choices that I had made from the time I signed my letter of intent to play at the University of Texas at El Paso in February 1983, on up to my moment of saying, Enough. Have you ever asked yourself, How did I end up here? What led me to where I now find myself? Choices and consequences. You can make the choices, but you don’t get to choose the consequences that come along with them. The consequences are built into each choice you make.

After performing a prolonged self-evaluation, I walked away from the mirror, and from that moment on, things changed. First and foremost, my mind-set changed. Secondly, the vision for STATS, Student Athlete Transition Symposium, came to me as a way to stay involved with athletics and be a positive influence in student athletes’ lives. STATS’s mission is to help student athletes make the transition from high school to college and beyond. Our aim is to be a part of building a well-balanced student athlete. We want to bring awareness to how character is easier kept than recovered.

Let’s go back in time and look at what brought me to this point.

I was born and raised in a little town just thirty miles south of Houston called La Marque, Texas. I graduated from La Marque High School in 1983, where I was a three-year starter at free safety. I went on to play cornerback and safety at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) as a four-year starter. I received an offer to play with the Calgary Stampedes in the Canadian Football League in 1988, and although I thought I had performed well enough to make the team, I was released after the final preseason game. I returned to UTEP to complete my studies, and by December of that year, 1988, I became an expectant father. Not quite what I had in mind, as I was trying to earn my degree and continue to pursue playing football professionally, and if you asked others, they would tell you it wasn’t what they expected either.

It’s not that Michelle’s pregnancy, to whom I’ve been married since 1990, was going to totally change my plans, goals, or dreams of playing football, but it would alter how I would be able to pursue them once my beautiful daughter Chimelle was born. It wasn’t just about me anymore. I was Bull. I was what many described as the hardest hitter, the smallest player with the biggest heart. At that time, I did what I had to do to provide for my new family. It was a very long process for me to deal with the fact that my time on the field was probably over. Within one year, I went from playing before thousands of people in Canada, attempting to making my dream come true of defending and hitting receivers and running backs, intercepting passes and enjoying the camaraderie of teammates on a professional football team, to attacking and throwing trash cans around and into a garbage truck. To make matters worse, it was in a conjoining city of my hometown, and I was living at my mom and dad’s home. That was the longest four months of my life. Talk about reality hitting you head-on.

I went on to try out for a new football league, the PSFL, Professional Spring Football League, but the league folded after I was in training camp for a month. I had a couple more opportunities to sign with the Arena Football League, but by then I was working full-time with a good salary. Then the annual mourning during the NFL drafts began as I watched and cheered for some ex-teammates—like Seth Joyner with the Philadelphia Eagles and Tony Tolbert with the Dallas Cowboys—whose dreams were coming true. My moment of enough already, which I refer to as a wake-up call, came along with a conversation with God, and the vision for STATS was given to me and now this book.

In case you’re wondering what the conversation with God was about, let me tell you. Do you remember the song by Janet Jackson that said, What have you done for me lately? That was what God said to me. There was no long narrative that took place. Just one simple question.

I feel much better now about having to work on that garbage truck since a friend of mine shared some valuable and privileged information with me in reference to being a garbage man. You see, Nelson was a garbage man in Mississippi for about five years. Now, I don’t know how true it is, but Nelly said that if you serve a certain amount of time working on a garbage truck, apparently you get a free pass straight on into heaven. I have yet to see this mentioned anywhere in the Bible, but my four months would be enough to have gained a free pass, because I have already experienced hell by working on a garbage truck.

Imagine how much frustration could be avoided if we were to learn from each other’s life lessons. Who better to speak to your younger self than you? I believe this book holds the promise of pouring wisdom into the next generation. This book is a compilation of ex-student athletes who have gone on to excel in their athletic careers professionally, or they went pro in something other than sports. Some of them you will remember, and some you may not. Others, such as myself, you may have never heard of before, but it is the life experiences, the challenges overcome, the choices made, the consequences experienced, and the decisions that brought on those consequences, both good and bad, that you may be able to identify with. Then there is the topic of self-control and other subjects that will resonate with you. Each chapter delivers a different approach and perspective as ex-student athletes speak to their younger selves. Good judgment comes with experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Yes, it’s great if you happen to know the person by name, either because you are familiar with him or her because you have seen them play their particular sport or through numerous interviews, but you don’t have a relationship with them. It is through their letters, as they communicate with their younger selves, that you can gain a better picture of who they are and relate to who they were at a particular phase in their life. Perhaps something will resonate with you that will cause you to pause and self-evaluate.

I want you to succeed! Now you’re probably saying, You don’t even know me. Why care whether I succeed or not? I cannot tell you why I have such a strong urgency to see both student athletes and regular students succeed and reach their goals. I can only tell you that I have a God-given mandate and a passion to see you be your best in the classroom and in your sport.

My hope and prayer is that, after reading this book, you are encouraged, inspired, and positively influenced to live out your life’s purpose and be all that you were created to be.

Chapter 1

Robert Bouvier Murray

Dear sixteen-year-old Bouvier,

The idea of writing this letter to you was an answer to a prayer from me to God, and it all started with a deep, burning desire to inspire and encourage both present and future student athletes in making their transition from high school to college and beyond. As I began to review my life as a student