So I went for engineering, specifically product design, which I

“So I went for engineering, specifically product design, which I enjoyed.” Thus spoke Debi Thomas, the figure skater of fire and intellect, whose life stands as a testament to the harmony between art and science, discipline and curiosity, movement and mind. At first glance, her words seem simple—a reflection on a career choice—but within them lies a profound truth about the nature of the human spirit: that it is not meant to walk a single path, but to weave many into one. Her choice of engineering, born not from pressure but from joy, reveals the ancient wisdom that to build is to create, and to create is to live in harmony with one’s inner design.

In the chronicles of human history, the most luminous souls have always been those who refused to confine themselves to one realm. Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor, understood this sacred balance. He painted the Mona Lisa and sketched flying machines with equal reverence. His genius did not dwell only in beauty or in logic, but in the marriage of the two. Debi Thomas, too, carried this dual spirit—grace upon the ice, precision in the workshop. In her, we see a living reminder that the mind of a creator and the heart of an artist are not rivals, but reflections of the same divine impulse: to shape the world into meaning.

Her journey is no ordinary one. She rose to fame as the first African-American woman to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, mastering the frozen stage where few like her had stood before. Yet even as the world watched her glide with brilliance and strength, her mind reached toward another horizon—the world of engineering and product design. In this she found joy not separate from her skating, but akin to it. For both require the same sacred virtues: balance, precision, imagination, and perseverance. The engineer, like the skater, must trust the laws of motion; must fail, and try again; must see beauty not only in movement but in mechanism.

The ancients would have understood this harmony. In their temples and their philosophies, they taught that knowledge has many faces, yet one soul. The Greek word techne meant both art and craft—a sign that the builders of the old world saw no divide between the artisan and the philosopher. Debi Thomas’s decision to pursue engineering, to “go for it,” as she says, is the modern echo of this wisdom. It reminds us that fulfillment lies not in following expectation, but in following curiosity. To choose what brings joy is not indulgence—it is alignment with one’s true design.

And there is another layer to her words—a quiet defiance. For in a world that so often seeks to define people by race, by gender, or by one singular gift, Thomas chose breadth over confinement. She refused to be only the Olympian, only the symbol, only what others saw. In choosing engineering, she claimed her full humanity—the right to think, to create, to enjoy. Her path speaks to all who feel divided between passions, who fear that to follow one calling is to abandon another. She teaches us that the human spirit is vast enough for many loves, that joy itself is the compass of purpose.

Her story finds resonance in all who build bridges between worlds. Think of Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician whose calculations carried astronauts to the moon, and who also found beauty in equations as others find it in poetry. Both she and Thomas remind us that to create—whether through design, science, or art—is to serve the same eternal flame of curiosity. Each sketch, each blueprint, each leap upon the ice is an act of communion with that flame, a whisper of “I was made to make.”

So let this be the lesson of Debi Thomas’s words: go for what you enjoy, not what others prescribe. The soul thrives not in certainty, but in exploration. Do not fear to blend passions; the world needs those who think with imagination and feel with logic. The designer’s hand and the artist’s heart are kin. Whether you draw, invent, or build, do it with the joy that Thomas found—for joy is the truest sign that you are walking your own path.

For in the end, the life of Debi Thomas is proof that fulfillment lies not in choosing between worlds, but in uniting them. Be both dancer and thinker, both dreamer and maker. Find delight in your work, and your work will become an offering. And when you stand, as she once did—balanced on the edge of possibility—remember that to design with joy is to honor both the mind and the spirit, and in that harmony, to live fully and freely.