Recently, gymnastics has been trending on Tumblr. After spending a few hours scrolling mindlessly through gifs of incredibly athletic girls doing death-defying flips, I took to Youtube, and the endless coverage of whole events of gymnastics at the most recent youth Olympics.
I AM OBSESSED. Seriously. I love it. I once watched two hours of it in one go. And the weird thing? There's no reason why I should be. I have no experience or skill in gymnastics; this emphasised by the fact that I can't actually touch my toes. Seriously. My hamstrings do not like to be stretched. I also love watching the show Dance Moms which centres around a few incredibly talented dancers of my age and their pushy mothers who live vicariously through their daughters. It's top notch TV.
Aside from gymnastics/dancing, I also actively try and find videos/documentaries on prodigies in all fields; specifically music and child geniuses but other things too (this makes sense seeing as I do actually play the violin. Unfortunately I am not a child genius.) I just find them so fascinating, the way they're just born that way. Also, the fact that often these people have some inability to function, like that part of the brain is entirely taken over by talent. I definitely have a few of those people in my year. However there is this girl in my orchestra who contradicts both of my points, having only started playing at 7/8 (which is actually quite old as far as prodigies go) and is also a really nice human being, just having got so good by practising two hours a day since she started (in the same programme I started actually, just before me) And yes, she is incredible at the cello. PROOF: She was discharged from a pretty high standard teacher at thirteen.
So, here's my question. Why am I so fascinated by these people, though I share none of their talents myself? Does it just make me feel like somehow I could do what they can? Surely it should just lower my self esteem? I also find people my own age way more interesting than particularly talented adults, which gives the impression that I just relate to them more. BUT I DON'T. I can't. They're grade 8 and beyond, I'm grade 6. I am in no way prodigious in any way.
But what do you think? Are you a prodigy? WHAT'S IT LIKE?? I ENVY YOU. Or, if you aren't, what's your view on them? Am I alone in this weird kind-of obsession? Comment below!
BYE!