"I Will Win"

Days ago, I saw this video while scrolling on my phone's youtube. It was about a male figure skater named Yuzuru Hanyu. When I saw this particular video post, I became curious, various thoughts suddenly started coming into me. What does he look like? How good is he? Is he better than Martinez? I had a lot of questions popping in my head so naturally, I opened the video. Then I saw this guy,and when he started skating in the rink, I was astonished. Watching him felt like I was watching some animation, he moved so elegantly, so graceful. After that I became his fan, i started searching other videos or articles related to who he is, where he came from, and how good his talent is.

I became more curious, more determined to know this "Two Time Olympic Medalist" that won in the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics. So I started going through documentaries about him. Watching those made me crave more. It was about his attitude, his behavior, it was about who Yuzuru Hanyu was on and off the the rink. I was aware, of how big the expectations of the people around him gives him. Of how big a responsibility he carries, oh how scary it is to do something in front of not only millions of people, but billions of them, watching each and every move that you make.

It was about how he pursues his dream, how he makes every possible obstacle out of his way to do what he wants, to reach what he longs for.

I know what expectations can do to people. Most of the times, with too much pressure, people can't handle them so they crumble. But him, he was a great person, striving hard to achieve his dreams, looking only straight ahead, charging head first to the obstacles that come his way.

What made me truly inspired was when the documentary showed various parts of his life where he was at his lowest, when he had injuries and unable to pursue figure skating for months. Instead of wallowing, he kept practicing, not only physically, but through image training. When asked about how he does it all, he told them, "whenever I feel tired or down or depressed about skating, I look at the words I wrote". When asked about the words he was saying, he pointed at a page of one of his older notebooks. "I wrote it when I was angry that time" he said, pertaining to the time he lost in a competition. The words he was pointing at was the phrase "I will win". It may seem not too much to others, but in that moment, it made me admire him more.

Expectations sometimes can bring you down, it can make you crumble to the ground. It can ma you sad, angry, feel unwanted if things go down differently from what you expect. But Yuzuru Hanyu made me rethink about my perceptive about expectations.

He showed me that no matter how high the expectations people give you, you should always strive hard to overcome it.