You're listening to life kit from NPR.
Hey, everybody, it's Marielle.
When Whitney Bay was growing up in Illinois and her mom would tell her, go outside and play, she knew what that meant.
Play for us was going outside, climbing trees.
It was making mud pies.
It was.
We used to, like, reenact a lot of, like, current events, like the Olympics.
The 1996 Olympics, I believe the 1996 Olympics were an iconic moment for young girls.
We were obsessed with Dominique Mocciano, Dominique Dawes, Carrie Strugg, and the four other incredible gymnasts who won gold for the US that year.
We'd set up, like this little bench, and I'd run and I'd, like, jump over it like it's a vault.
And it's literally just like a sitting bench.
So just like, use our imagination.
And it was fun.
It really felt.
I mean, of course it wasn't real, but it just.
It felt like I was somebody.
Like a lot of kids, Whitney was fluent in play.
You probably have an idea of what play is, but here's a definition I think really rings true.
I define play as any joyful act where you forget about time.
It's where you're, like, fully immersed in the moment.