Wake Up With Purpose!: What I’ve Learned In My First Hundred Years by Sister Jean and Seth Davis was a positive, uplifting and very quick read. (I finished it in a couple of hours.) The author, Sister Jean, is a 103 year old Catholic sister currently retired, but still working part-time and volunteering at Loyola University in Chicago. Seth Davis, who collaborated on this novel, is a CBS college basketball broadcaster and sportswriter.
I love college basketball, so I knew of Sister Jean from the 2018 year when Loyola, against all odds, made it all the way to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. It was fun to read about Sister Jean Delores Schmidt’s life through her own words. She has had a busy and fulfilling career as a teacher, administrator and team chaplain for Loyola’s basketball team. She shares little tidbits about life from her childhood, all the way through the present. It was interesting to read about the changes she has seen in education and sports during her lifetime. Her sense of humor is the best!
You wouldn’t need to be a basketball fan to enjoy reading Sister Jean’s memoir. I loved her upbeat and sensible thoughts – always interspersed with humor and love. She genuinely loves people, life and God. Teamwork, resilience and discipline were 3 skills she thinks all people need to learn, whether through education or through sports. In these ‘negative news’ times, Wake Up With Purpose! was a refreshing comment on life!
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