(audience cheering) (audience applauding) What happens when the thing you're known for is no longer the thing you do?

Mitch was a standout athlete who went on to play Division 1 basketball, Marcellus was a star at Central, then became a Bradley legend.

A player people still talk about 20 years later.

If you grew up around here, you knew these guys as hoopers, certified hoopers, both known for their basketball prowess on the hard wood, or blacktop, if you're Gus Macker.

And yet neither one of them is defined by basketball anymore.

Eventually, the games end.

The crowds go home, the jerseys have to come off.

Then life asks a different question.

Who are you now?

Not what did you do, not what were you known for.

Who are you now?

I think that's a question all of us face eventually, right?

Maybe not as athletes, but certainly as people.

Student graduates, the parents whose kids move out, the person who retires, the business owner who sells the company, the person who moves to a new city and has to start all over.

At some point, every chapter closes, and when it does, it could be tempting to keep rereading it, to keep talking about the good ol' days, to keep wishing things were the way they used to be.

Here's what I admire about Mitch and Marcellus, though.

Neither one of them got stuck in an old chapter.

Basketball wasn't the end of their story.

Mitch took the discipline, preparation, and competitiveness he learned on the court, and built a nationally-recognized career in law.

Marcellus took the leadership, resilience, and heart that made him successful as a player, and poured it into serving people through the Peoria Friendship House.

The thing that made them successful wasn't basketball, it was becoming the kind of people who could keep growing after basketball.

I don't think life is about finding yourself once, and then being done.

I think it's about having courage and curiosity to keep growing, to keep evolving, to keep reinventing yourself, to keep turning the page when the chapter ends.

Because we're all the authors of our own story, and I truly admire the people who strive to write an unforgettable one.

That's what it's all about, baby.

And that is my take.

So thank you for tuning in, ladies and gentlemen.