For as long as I can remember, I have been doing gymnastics. As soon as I set foot in a gymnasium I realized, I never wanted to leave. Gymnastics is my favorite sport and it always will be, and even though I am no longer able to do it, I will never forget the experience I had.
I started gymnastics at a very young age. I was only three years old when my mother first put me in a mommy and me class. My mom never expected me to love it as much as I did, or even continue it for twelve years and become competitive in it. We went to competitions all over the state of Florida. Occasionally we would compete out of state but competitions were mainly in areas like Tampa or Orlando.
My favorite event in gymnastics was the balance beam. I loved the challenge of flipping on a four-inch piece of wood. I was always referred to as “beam queen” because I had a natural talent for it. Doing skills on the balance beam always came easy to me, and my love for this event showed when I scored well in competitions.
Although, I am no longer able to do gymnastics because of a defect that was found in my spine, I still love it as much as I would if I were still doing it. It was really tough trying to accept that fact that my life of gymnastics, after eleven years, was over. But after all the sad moments, I found a new hobby to past the time. This hobby is volleyball and I really enjoy it. Words cannot explain how much I love this sport or how I would give anything for my back to be healed and for me to go back to the gym. The good news is that I haven’t lost all of my skills. Whenever I visit the gym I still like to flip around and see what I can do.
I don’t know why I loved the sport so much, I just did. I mean it could have been for many reasons though like hurting practically every bone in my body, or peeling skin off my hands the size of quarters. Or maybe it was being so sore that I couldn’t even walk the next day. I do know for sure though that I loved the challenge that came with the sport. I loved the fact of being able to do things that the average person could not do.
Some challenges came with the sport though. For instance I had a tough schedule to keep. I trained for four hours a day, five days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, and when you throw school and homework in there, it gets pretty complicated. I was constantly tired from going to bed late because of gym and having to wake up early for school. I barely even got to rest on the weekends because that’s when all the competitions were. It was definitely a non-stop schedule. As I look back on it now I really miss the late nights and the hectic schedule.
Finding time for doing something else was also a challenge. Especially during the summer when all my friends were going to the beach or the movies, I couldn’t because I had gymnastics. My friends would always ask me to hangout but I couldn’t just because of the fact that I either had practice or a competition. And while all of my friends were home eating dinner, I was still training. At the time I really wished to could hang out with friends instead of gymnastics but now, it’s the complete opposite.
From this sport I learned so many things. I learned things that will help me later in life. The most important thing I learned is not to give up. I also made so many friends along the way. All of the girls on my team are practically sisters. I even made some friends during competitions that I still talk to. Overall, I had a great experience with gymnastics, and I am sad it is over, but I will never for the memories that were made. Gymnastics will always be apart of me.