There I was in the middle of my dismount on beam. I knew that if I didn’t stick this, it would be hard to get the score I needed to qualify into regionals. I spotted the ground and stuck it! I celebrated with my teammate and was very excited, but I didn’t know that my routine was the highest score in that session and soon I would be state champion in my age group.

Let’s flashback a bit to how this all started.

I started competitive gymnastics when I was seven. Competitive gymnastics is when gymnasts compete against one another  to place just like the Olympics, I compete in vault, floor, beam, and bars.  I was so excited to start this new adventure in my life….then pandemic hit right in the middle of our season. That meant no practices or competitions until we were allowed back. But in 2020, when we came back, I had a very rough season. I had low scores, and never placed on any of the four events. That summer I worked harder than ever, getting stronger and

learning new skills. I moved up levels and had a great season. I made it to the podium every meet and hit record scores in my level. 

I had good seasons up to 2023, then I was exhausted. I had many mental blocks and going to practice was no longer fun as it used to be. I didn’t know many teammates my level and I didn’t like the skills I was working on.  In the Summer of 2024 I had thoughts of quitting when my favorite coach decided not to work at our gym anymore. On top of that , I had a very tragic fall on bars and had a knee injury up to late August. It was a rough summer and I had no motivation to go to practice. But in Fall of 2024, I walked into practice and I saw this one of a kind coach walking in the gym. She knew every deduction, every point taken off, every correction, and anything you needed to know about gymnastics.

Once she started coaching, my season sky rocketed. I placed in almost every event during the season. It made me feel a lot better that I was improving and scoring better than I had in two years. But coming up was one of the biggest meets I had ever been to, States.  I was very nervous about this meet. While I was stretching and warming up I had a feeling in my mind that I would not make it to regionals, looking at my competition I knew right there that this would be hard.

I did every routine with pristine technique and skill. Then came beam, I was struggling to get a nine on this event all season. I saluted the judges and took a deep breath. I was so shaky when I started my routine. First it was my backhandspring which I did with perfection. Next up I had a skill that I struggled on all season, I either wobbled or fell. I turned and landed! No wobble, no flexed feet, just a perfect turn. I did my jumps flawlessly then my last skill was here, my dismount. I thought of everything I had been through this season and put it all towards the ending of this routine. I did my dismount the best I could and stuck the landing. I quickly saluted and celebrated with my coach and teammate. At the awards, I had no clue that I even placed on anything let alone winning two events! I sat with my teammate prepared that my name wouldn’t be called for anything, so I sat down and got on my phone to check the website that showed you scores and what you placed. As soon as

I went to search my name, it got called for first place! I was so shocked that I honestly thought they had called the wrong name. I stood up there with a huge smile on my face. I was in an emotional whirlwind that included joy,disbelief and pride. States turned out pretty well for me and then gymnastics was a nightmare right after.

Even though I was enjoying gymnastics, I wanted to do school sports and activities that made practice times collide. Gymnastics was four days a week; three of which being three hours. I only went to practices two days a week if I was lucky so mental blocks started making going to practices in a good mood even harder. I had new mental blocks every week. I never wanted to go to practice the days I actually could go.Some of my friends had even quit during the summer making it worse.  My parents asked me if I wanted to quit and deep down I did but I knew I would miss it and I would exceptionally miss all of my friends.

 I love gymnastics, but these days I just want to go home and relax. Some people usually get to go home and relax until they go to bed, but I get home and leave for practice 15 minutes later and will be home an hour before I go to bed. This leaves me exhausted and tired for the next day just to do it all over again. But other than that I might sound like I don’t have any feelings about this sport but I do. I love this sport and I never want to stop . I want to get better as the years go on and win higher achievements. But gymnastics isn’t for the weak! Be ready for A LOT of conditioning: Rope climbs, sprints, and on top of that three and a half hours of events before! So when you tell a gymnast they are not tough… you are messing with the wrong girl!