Give up, relinquish, abandon, put aside, leave.

You can pick a definition for the word "quit," just don't do it.

Snuggled in the home office, I flipped the game on that I had been watching before going to a committee meeting.

It was 24-6 early in the second half. Since I didn't really have an avid interest in either team, I flipped to baseball, where it was the bottom of the eighth inning.

Restless, I turned off the television.

Later, the friend said that I missed one of the incredible comebacks in recent memory, that the team with 6 had come back to win, 30-27.

When the game first began, I explained to the friend that I felt badly for Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.

"He probably should have retired and didn't, and now they're doing badly and people are saying he should quit," was my elementary explanation.

It's so unlike me to quit anything. Of course, there were the college courses that I dropped because the grades were so bad. After awhile, Fritz the Dad rang in with the now infamous line, "Hey, the first four are on me. After that, you're on your own."

The state's Hathaway guidelines enforce pretty much the same idea for Mouse, without the personal phone call.

Settled in bed, with the heat on and the dog snoring, I read a marvelous tale in Sports Illustrated about Joe Paterno, who has coached Penn State for 60 -- yes, 60 -- years.

He sees himself as still adding value to the lives of the young men in the program and feels no need to quit, though he nears his 83rd birthday.

And so it goes.

Some quit because it's easy, others won't quit when the pressure mounts.

Endorsed by Gramps, his two Wyoming grandkids were exposed to nearly anything they wanted to be exposed to -- but not at age 3 like some kids are today.

Knobby-kneed Skinny Son first tried T-ball, then baseball, then midget football and later, high school swimming. Interspersed were bowling and golf. And the rule was always the same -- if you don't like it, you don't have to sign up for another season, but once you're in, you're in.

Mouse played soccer, seemed to enjoy it, showed real promise, and then completely unexpectedly announced that she wanted "to do gymnastics."

So she did gymnastics, which turned from recreational to competitive in the blink of an eye, and has state championship memories as a result.

Still, she didn't "quit" soccer until a season was finished.

Gramps did not set out to make our kids miserable, but to hopefully learn the life lessons that come with the satisfaction of sticking with something even when conditions are not ideal.

That's what Gramps did in Laramie, and we figured our kids should do that too.

In life, you don't quit because you're not having fun or not challenged enough. Make your own fun. Find your own challenges.

Maybe you don't care whether Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno stay or go. Just find something to care about -- and then don't quit..

Community News editor Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at (307) 266-0520 or sallyann.shurmur@trib.com. Read Sal's blog at tribtown.trib.com/Sal/blog and follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WYOSAS