Every now and then, something happens that makes me re-evaluate things. The hot water from my tap doesn't get hot fast enough. My ceiling fan doesn't spin fast enough to make it colder in my bedroom. And my sliced bread doesn't stay fresh for long as I want it to to.
Then this happens.
An athlete from South Africa is seen racing across my TV screen with a 'click clack click clack' as he makes his way down the track; an athlete who, in the face of adversity, has proven that he has both the strength of character and determination to beat the odds, pass the tests, and achieve his life-long goal of competing at the Olympic Games with able-bodied athletes.
And suddenly I feel embarrassed by my own pettiness of my hot water not heating up fast enough, or my ceiling fan not spinning fast enough, of traffic lights taking too long to change.
Here's someone who was born without fibulas, who had his legs (plural, not singular - yes, both of them) amputated when he was just a year old.
Africa is well-known to produce world-class runners. But never before has a runner without legs made so many headlines across the globe. And this summer, the 'Rainbow Nation' makes history by being the first country in the world to send a double amputee to compete in the Olympics.
Sadly, this has not come without controversy. Some have complained that Oscar Pistorius, the 25-year old dubbed "Blade Runner" and "the fastest man on no legs", has an unfair advantage. This despite 100s upon 100s of interviews and tests with 100s of International Olympic Committee members to prove that.
Just five months before his legs were amputated, his mother wrote him a letter to be read when he was an adult: "The real loser is never the person who crosses the finishing line
last. The real loser is the person who sits on the side,
the person who does not even try to compete."
Tonight, Oscar Pistorius enters the Olympic stadium again. And no matter whether he wins Gold or not, he remains a winner and inspiration to people everywhere.
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