The Ping-Pong Champ, part I

Otja's mother Oja was an aspiring ping-pong player during her youth. She had intentions of becoming a full-time professional player, but an unfortunate wrist injury prevented her from doing so. Naturally, she signed her son Otja up for ping pong lessons as soon as he was old enough to hold a paddle! Otja displayed a remarkable talent and genuine love for the game — and he was really, really good at it. He quickly became the best player in his age group at the Pong-Ping Academy of Ping-Pong. They say that he could even play with two paddles at the same time! Soon he was bringing home one trophy after another: he was Pine Forest junior champion for three years in a row, and won first place in the United Forests Youth Table Tennis Championship, back in 1997.

During his teenage years, Otja gradually became less and less enthusiastic about vigorous ping-pong practice and decided to pursue other interests instead (many of which involved vines, succulents and shrubs). His mother didn't mind too much; she was very proud of what her remarkable little champ had already achieved.