Living Outside The Lines: Celebrating The Human Spirit
By, Becky J Miller
Watching the 2016 Rio Olympics and seeing all of the superior athletes compete is electrifying. Cheering for an American athlete during their contest then observing them on the podium receiving a medal invokes national pride, but it can also make the rest of us ordinary, everyday folk feel like perhaps our lives don’t quite measure up. I believe, though, that rather than a game of comparison, perhaps we should focus more on celebrating the human spirit.
The Olympic games are filled with stories of athletes overcoming incredible odds in their lives and/or careers. Hearing their stories is encouraging; hearing their stories strengthens the bonds of our connection as humans. For if any one of them can overcome trials in order to achieve greatness in their story, there is hope for your story and for mine.
Kerri Walsh Jennings, a three-time Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist has had her share of obstacles to overcome. Kerri was five weeks pregnant during the 2012 London games and still won gold! Can you imagine? I can’t play volleyball when I’m not pregnant!
Kerri has also suffered a number of serious injuries during her career and endured four shoulder surgeries: two for instability, and two for injury repair. One surgery occurred in September before the 2011 London Olympics and yet another this past September. She took six months off and didn’t begin training for Rio until March.
Have you watched the woman play? She’s amazing!! And, this Olympics, she is playing with a new partner, April Ross. With Misty May-Trainer, she played on the left side, but with April she now plays on the right. And she’s killin’ it!! Kerri exemplifies the beauty of the human spirit.
There are other athletes who have proven just what we humans are capable of doing with the right amount of determination. At the 2000 Sydney Games, 19-year-old, Anthony Ervin, tied for gold in the 50-meter freestyle event. Fifty meters equals one single pool distance, that race is hard-core, the “go out with everything you’ve got or go home crying to your momma kind or race!”
SIXTEEN years later, at age 35, which is ancient for a swimmer, Ervin, once again, won that race making him the oldest swimmer ever to win a gold medal. That was an exciting event to watch!!! Witnessing the exquisiteness of the enduring human spirit never gets old.
Nineteen-year-old Olympic All-Around Gymnastics Gold Medalist, Simone Biles, was adopted out of the foster care system at the tender age of six. Abandoned by a substance-abusing mother, Simone’s life could have taken a completely different course. Instead she found a loving home, a strong faith and a sport in which she excels.
In the 2013 Secret U.S. Classic Simone tweaked her ankle. Rather than allowing her injury to sideline her, she changed her floor routine incorporating a new trick that would come to be her signature move, “The Biles.” And here we have yet again, another example of that overcoming human spirit.
Here is the best part; Olympic athletes are not the only ones with stories to tell, we all have our own version of both fairy tales and horror stories. No story is less important or meaningful than another; they are all the stories of our lives, the fabric that shapes us, and what makes us who we are.
My story is different than yours, but we can learn from each other, draw strength from each other and then write new and improved chapters. The human spirit is woven into everyone’s DNA; how we choose to use it, well, that part is entirely up to us!
Until Next Time,
Becky J Miller
“Warrior Princess”
