At the end of May, a 67-year-old nun from Singapore became a new world taekwondo champion – this is what we could read in many newspaper headers a few weeks ago. Isn’t this impressive – it surely is, but the story of Linda Sim is even more compelling.

Sister Linda Sim comes from Singapore and as child wanted to join the police or become a soldier. However, 43 years ago, to surprise of her parents, she decided to join the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood and become a Catholic nun.

During all this time, the 4ft 11 inches (1.49m) tall religious sister was practising the martial art, as it enables her to reach out to people in a non-church language. She admitted that the sequence of movements in teakwondo is like a dance for her. Sister Sim also said that she lives by the Taekwondo’s motto “peace is more precious than triumph”.

St. Linda spent almost 20 years of her life travelling the world. She was working in England and also spent three years in Zimbabwe, working as an administrator in a hospital. 15 years ago, after coming back from her travels to Singapore – Sister Sim started to work with children suffering from cancer and this is when she experienced a life changing moment where she realised that she wasn’t too old to take her passion for taekwondo to a higher level.

The petite and small-framed Catholic nun started to be professionally coached by the STF and ended up taking part in 25 international competitions representing Singapore and winning the last one in South Korea gave her the title of the World’s Champion. The story of Sr. Linda Sim is a real proof that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true and you should always follow your real passion.

Photo credit: TNP.com