I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I had continued my football career. I would probably have an entourage of fans everywhere I went on campus. Recruiters would be offering me skybox season tickets to get me to sign with their NFL team. I’d be rolling in fame and fortune and would finally be admitted to eat dinner at Case Dining Hall.

The only problem is my football “career” ended after one season of being the third-string center of my eighth grade pee-wee football team. When I used to play, it was not hard to spot me on the field because I was always the kid being pulled up out of the ground. No need to bring the camera, Dad, nobody’s gonna want to see this football game ever again.

Once I realized that I was so bad not even Ted Roof himself would let me play for him, I made a crucial and very important decision — I threw in the towel and quit playing football. And I have no regrets.

Despite what you constantly hear parroted from teachers, parents, coaches or any other people who offer you their two cents, quitting is not a sign of weakness and inability. I contest this sentiment and instead say that being a quitter can be both a liberating and rewarding experience.

Consider what my life may have been like if I had followed the long propagated theory of “NEVER GIVE UP!” and continued playing ball. I would have taken so many violent hits as the team speed bump that by now I would suffer from short-term memory loss, be lame in one leg and unable to reproduce. Yet instead, I quit and have since realized true happiness of discovering that my talents lay in other areas and not in chasing a ball around a big field. So where would the payoff be in not being a quitter?

Of course, there are many times in life when it pays to persevere. The most successful people in our society did not get that way through osmosis. They chased dreams, and in every case except Paris Hilton, fought through adversity to arrive at the top of their respective field.

But for every Lifetime movie story line of some person overcoming the odds by preserving, there is that guy or gal who should have realized his or her limitations long ago and stopped while he or she was ahead. Take U.S. Defense Dictator Donald Rumsfeld. Or reality TV and TrimSpa breeze brain Anna Nicole Smith. Even American Idol embarrassment William Hung. All of these people would have benefited from someone saying, “Hey, maybe this isn’t for you. It’s cool if you want to quit. Please.”

It is easy to see why so many people continue doing things that either make them unhappy or they have no business doing in the first place. Our culture makes it seem as though it is a sin to quit anything. Take job interviews for instance. Most will ask you for your previous work history and then base your commitment to the job you are applying for based on your reasoning for leaving past jobs. There seems to be a need to justify your reason for quitting previous jobs such as, “I had to focus on school,” or “we moved out of state.” Not just because you didn’t like being a custodian.

Kenny Rogers had it right when he penned his song “The Gambler” with these lyrics: “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em/ Know when to walk away and know when to run.”

This is of course a reference to poker (which everyone should now understand, given the oversaturation the game has received through TV shows, celebrities and pointless game-related merchandise). But any player of the game will tell you that not every hand you are dealt is one worth playing.

So it is with jobs, relationships, opportunities, classes and most everything. Sometimes you get in over your head, realize something isn’t for you or wish you were doing something else. And in those cases, it is perfectly OK — in fact, even intelligent and responsible — to quit.

We’re college students with the whole rest of our working lives to decide what’s right for us, what we want out of life and where we want it to take us. A fear of being viewed as a failure can keep you doing something you shouldn’t.

Don’t let yourself be the team speed bump.

E-mail A.J. at [email protected].