Gymnast Katelyn Ohashi's entire performance lasts 88 seconds, or just under a minute and a half. 21-year-old Katelyn performs a gymnastic routine, which the judges will rate as a perfect ten. The video went viral, with more than 11 million views, not just because we can watch a flawless performance of Michael Jackson and Tina Turner's song, but for something else.
While Katelyn is doing her routine, she can from start to finish, we see incredible happiness on the face. Is it gymnastics that makes Ohashi so happy? He says he is. "Performing is my favorite thing. You see exactly what I feel," she told the New York Times.
But this was not always the case. Katelyn used to perform as elite gymnast. If she hadn't been too young, she would have been part of the 2012 Olympic team. Everyone expected that it would fulfill their hopes four years later. But Katelyn didn't see OI. Instead, she preferred to quit the sport. Turns out she was competing with a broken back and torn shoulder ligaments. Even more than her body, she was damaged her psyche. She struggled a lot with her self-image as she transitioned from the youthful appearance that dominated elite gymnastics into a woman in her teenage years. When she was operated on, she did not want to return to elite gymnastics, preferring to decided to study. Her mother did not immediately accept this, but when she saw how happy my daughter is she reconciled.
So how do we define success? Competition among the elite while we starve and are miserable, or happy competition at university? Even if Katelyn didn't end up in a viral video, she chose the right path. And the same goes for all of us: all those hours we devote to our careers will soon be forgotten. What a waste of time for something that brings us no joy.
