I basically have my life today as a result of what I did as a child. What did I miss out on? Yeah, I missed not hanging out at shopping malls, I guess, but that is not a big deal because you don't get a medal for that.
Nadia ComaneciRead
My mother never watched me train in Romania. She wasn't allowed, it just wasn't done back then. My training was paid for by the government. My parents were not at the Olympics with me, either. I never expected them to be.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the absence of parental support during the speaker's training and achievements.
Nadia Comaneci reflects on her journey as an Olympic gymnast, noting the cultural norms of her time that limited parental involvement in her training. Despite the lack of presence from her family during critical moments, she expresses a realization that their absence did not diminish her determination or expectations regarding their support.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech highlighting the importance of perseverance in the absence of support.
I basically have my life today as a result of what I did as a child. What did I miss out on? Yeah, I missed not hanging out at shopping malls, I guess, but that is not a big deal because you don't get a medal for that.
If I was a boy, nobody would care that I worked out six, seven hours a day when I was 9 years old, no? Why were people always saying 'poor little girl?' I liked to work out and always did more than I was asked to.
I have had a few turning points, the first day I entered a gymnastics school at age 6.
I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.
I think that when you are on a four-inch balance beam, you don't care about laughing or smiling or waving to the crowd because you're going to be down in a second.
Maybe that's why I like gymnastics - because I like to fly.
I think my mom and dad both wanted to get across to me that... I obviously grew up with great privilege and was very lucky and was able to afford college and not have student loans, and they would pay for college, but beyond that, it would be up to me to make a living.
Paradoxically, those who call for family values also tout the wonders of an unregulated market without observing the subtle cultural links between the family they seek to regulate and the market they hold free.
Motherhood is a hallowed place because children aren’t commonplace. Co-laboring over the sculpting of souls is a sacred vocation, a humbling privilege. Never forget.
If I were dammed of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, mother o' mine o mother o' mine.
There are people who are just suicidal, regardless. They are built to self-destruct. It seems, in my family, like a virus that's resistant to any kind of help or care or medication.
For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you'd would wake up times and hope that the next day you'd be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.