I have read some blogs recently and heard some “social-net” chatter the past couple of days all about the Olympics, and specifically Figure Skating.
I, however, wanted to depart from the Figure Skating discussion to share my excitement about the incredible contingency on the US Snowboarding Team!
Both men and women alike, they have captured my attention.
In particular, two members of Team USA, namely Shaun White and Kelly Clark have held my rapt attention for the past two nights.
Now, Gentle Reader, I neither snow board nor like to have my feet leave terra firma, but watching these kids execute crazy moves like inverted 720’s, or Shaun’s insanely crazy “Double McTwist 1260“, or just “catching air” I am simply amazed! These tricks all look practically impossible (at least to my 49 year old perspective) yet they pull these moves off with an apparent ease that makes me think they have wings and can fly!
However, what really drew me to these two amazing kids was their bold individuality.
They are different and they celebrate that fact!
From Shaun White’s long hair to Kelly Clark unabashedly singing along with her iPod before her run, these young athletes are amazingly accessible and refreshingly unique role models for today’s youth.
I do not believe that society celebrates bold individuality enough today; striving to “be like everyone else” consumes everyone and he or she fear being different. Especially today’s youth, while they want to look and act differently, they all want to be the same as their peers, so when these uniquely different individuals appeared big and bold on the scene they caught my attention for sure.
As a person who has long danced to the tune of a different drummer, like-minded people excite me, and I wish there were more of them.
Therefore, this weekend, Gentle Readers, I want to challenge you all to try out some new dance steps. Step out of your box, embrace what is different about you, and be bold and show it off for the entire world to see.
Who knows, you just might enjoy it, because I promise you I will!
This is exactly why I’ve always loved watching the X-Games. When the athletes were asked, “Do you feel bad that you didn’t win the gold?” They always said, “You know? Today was her day. I won the last gold, so it’s her turn now.” I find it refreshing that they don’t act like they DESERVE it because they trained so hard and wanted it so bad.
White told the story of his mom going his gold medal to get cleaned at the cleaners in his interview with Cris Collingsworth on NBC. It was so funny! White questioned his mom if there was a way they could get the gold medal ribbon clean as it had grown quite disgusting and his mother took the whole thing to the dry cleaners! Shaun was shocked when she came back it back with a dry cleaning bag over top of it. He also thought it was funny that she complained about how much money it cost to clean it.
The Double McTwist 1260 is really an amazing trick, I wonder how many rides will do it next year.