As a part of Fordham’s annual Spring Weekend events, CAB organizes the American Age Lecture Series. This year’s event brought Olympic Gold Medalist, Shawn Johnson, to Fordham on a rainy Tuesday evening. As expected, the event drew a crowd that had people lining up an hour before doors opened to get good seats. Johnson began with a story about the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which she referred to as a defining moment in her life. She was 16 and an undefeated world champion, so naturally she felt the pressure. She explained that the moment she competed in the all-around event, she had left her soul out on the floor. She told herself, “If you can’t win the gold medal, at least go out and prove to the world that you deserved it.” Regardless of the fact that Johnson came in 2nd place and received a silver medal, all of the interviews that followed framed it as if she had lost, as if she had disappointed her country and herself. As each day went on, she became more numb to the process. By the time she did win the gold medal, it didn’t matter as much because she didn’t feel proud of her performance. Years later, she decided not to participate in the 2012 Olympics. Her moral of the story being: “Do what you genuniely love. Do what feels good to you. Go against the grain. Don’t do things just to satisfy other people. It’s terrifying, but the greatest life lesson is if you can look in the mirror and know that you gave it your all, there’s no greater feeling.” Johnson also had time to answer questions from the audience. The questions ranged from ‘would you put your kid in gymnastics’ to ‘what would your life be like if you did go to the olympics’ to ‘how was your wedding’. Johnson joked, “You guys are asking all of the hard ones.” She is currently studying Business at Vanderbilt University and was recently (like a week ago!) married to NFL player, Andrew East. Johnson proves that your age (she’s only 24) or even your height (talking to you fellow short girls) cannot stop you from knowing what you want and setting out to acheive it.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Fordham chapter.