summer camp

It was summer of 2007 and I was having some trouble with my confidence and what I was going to wear to gymnastics camp. I decided on plain shorts and a t-shirt I didn’t really like to stand out so I figured something casual that would avoid attention. The whole ride there was nerve wracking I felt like the ugly fish in the aquarium the one that you look at and think why is that in here? I didn’t even want to go to the stupid camp but my dad thought I was too antisocial so he gave me an ultimatum camp or summer school, so off I went with out even the safety net of knowing a single person to talk to. When I got there I went to the front desk to check in where a girl with red hair gave me a big hello my name is name tag with letters that were much to happy for the mood I was in then she instructed me to go out side for a small orientation. I walked outside and saw people sitting on the grass, so I went and sat behind them. A man named phil came out and told us what a great time we were going to have and how great we were all going to get at our weakest event I thought that was about as likely as pigs flying. After that we went and met our coaches I got Coach Tami she was a large muscular woman with brown hair she told us that at the end of the week we would all be performing a routine on our weakest event in front of our entire camp and that’s when the blanket of suppressed self doubt washed over me. I was sure I would fall flat on my face off the beam because I’m about as graceful as an elephant on ice skates.

The next day I came back and started right on the beam, coach Tami decided to try and teach me a handstand dismount and thanks to my canoe feet I fell off my third try and hurt my ankle which cost me of a day of much needed practice.

My third day of camp went great I learned a lot and also started to choreograph my routine though I still wasn’t very confident and it showed but my coach gave me a little pick me up pep talk and I felt a little better I even tried a few hard stunts buy I had a feeling they would take a while to fully get them right. The day before the showcase show I finished choreographing my routine but didn’t have time to practice as much as I would have liked because I left early for a friend’s birthday party.

Finally the day had come to present the my routine I got to the gym in the morning and the head coach Phil told us to all stay positive, try our best, and have fun! It was so cliché that I wanted to vomit; he wasn’t the one who had to try to not fall on his face in front of a large group of spectators. After that I practiced my routine and tried to incorporate the harder tricks like a one handed cart wheel, an illusion, and a round off back walkover dismount. Soon girls started performing and then it was my turn and before I knew it I was walking towards the beam sweating bullets. I went to the beam and started my routine, everything was going fine and I really started to believe that I was going to make it through without falling on my face then I realized that if I believed I could do it then I could so I added the one handed cartwheel and the round off back walkover and did them perfectly.

I think that I dident just learn how to properly dismount a beam at gymnastics camp I learnd how to believe in myself and that it’s ok to mess up sometimes because I’m only human. Now I teach gymnastics to kids from the ages of five to nine.