NBA Champion David “The Admiral” Robinson wrote a letter to his 18 year old self.

A number one overall pick, two time NBA Champion, one time league Most Valuable Player, and ten time NBA All Star, Robinson has, on separate occasions, led the NBA in blocks, scoring, and rebounding. He was also a U.S. Navy ensign. Robinson penned a letter to his 18 year old U.S. Naval Academy plebe self dated the morning before he was to take his swimming test. Much of the letter revolved around his father and grandfather, both of whom were hardworking, honorable men of the United States Military that helped shape him.

“Your grandfather is and will always be your hero, your inspiration,” wrote Robinson to his former self. “He fought in World War II, came home to Little Rock, Arkansas, and worked for 50 years as a mailman in the segregated south. Not once did he get a job promotion in five decades. But he kept working all the same. He saved up enough money to buy a piano for his home, and he used it to teach his four children how to play. When you think of that piano, you don’t think about music.  You think about all the family around the piano. You think about how much joy it spread. It was more than a piano, it was a symbol of something. Up. Keeping moving the family up. Keep working and saving and striving for a better future for your children, and for their children, even if you won’t be around to see it pay off.