Friday, February 14, 2014

To Give Up or To Be Great

Before the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies began NBC premiered "How to Raise an Olympian" presented by P&G. I should have known that if P&G had anything to do with it, I'd end up crying. Have you guys seen the "Thanks mom" or "Thank you mom" commercials that they do every olympics? I cry. Like a baby. Every. Time.

As I was watching the special hosted by Meredith Vieira I was touched by so many of the olympians stories.
They interviewed:
Olympic freeskier: Nick Goepper (mother:Linda); 
Olympic ice dancing silver medalists: Meryl Davis & Charlie White (mother: Chery & Jacqui, respectively); 
Olympic alpine skier: Mikaela Shiffrin (mother: Eileen); 
Olympic short track speed skater: J.R. Celsk (mother:Sue); 
Paralympic snowboarder: Amy Purdy (mother: Sheri); 
Olympic gold medalist and NBC Olympics correspondent: Lindsey Vonn (mother: Lindy). 

 The two that stood out to me the most. Probably because I caught the special half way through were Olympic short track speed skater J.R. Celski and Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy. I think her last name is so fitting because she is Purdy or Pretty, however you want to say it. 

Apparently while training for the olympics in some sort of event J.R. Celski got into an accident on the ice. He slid across the ice and with the way his legs were placed his skate acted like a huge blade and when he slammed into the wall, it cut through his leg just above the knee straight to the bone. Basically severing the muscle in two. He was millimeters. MILLIMETERS guys from severing an artery and bleeding out. But he didn't. God had other plans for him. At that point he could of thought "that's it, my career is over, I'm done". But he didn't. He was at an all time low and instead of succumbing to his negative mind he chose to overcome and achieve his dreams of being an Olympian.

 Amy Purdy, I seriously adore this girl. She had suddenly fallen ill and ended up in the hospital. She was quickly diagnosed with meningitis. She as doctors would say was in grave condition and possibly moments away from death. One of her doctors told her that if she believed in anything now would be the time to lean on that belief and fight for it, because if she didn't fight she wouldn't live. You know what she believed in so deeply that it saved her life? LOVE. She believed in love. She loved living her life so deeply, she loved the experiences that she had had and the idea of the experiences she is yet to have so much that she decided that she loved life too much to die so early. So she fought. And she overcame.

However, due to her fight for her life in the hospital, she lost both of her legs. She was an incredible snowboarder before her illness and she decided not to let that huge trial stop her from becoming the athlete that she wanted to be. And she did it. She is an Olympian.

 All of the stories shared were of people who were taken to the lowest of lows and then were forced to decide. Are they going to give up, or are they going to be great. I love that we can make a similar choice. We will be faced with out lowest of lows and then we will need to decide...am I going to give up or am I going to be great?

  Hardships Ordinary People #olympics #sochi2014
Image from familyshare.com

My choice? I'm going to be great. 
What's yours?
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