Ever since I was young, I have wanted to be able to do gymnastics. I would watch my best friend do back handsprings in the grass and I would watch the videos on YouTube of eight year olds doing backflips, and I always thought it was so cool. When I lived in America, I did clogging and I never wanted to do gymnastics more than dance. At our house in America, we had a trampoline. Since I knew we were moving and I wouldn’t have one anymore, I spent ALL day on that thing.

After my last dance season was over, I started watching YouTube videos about how to get flexible and how to tumble. When I tell you I spent all day doing gymnastics I mean ALL day. It was all I ever wanted to do. After months of practice I got my backhand spring and back tuck on the trampoline, and I became very flexible. I would record my progress, so I have THOUSANDS of photos and videos of my progress on my phone.

Even after we moved, I kept it up. One of my friends also wanted to be super flexible, so we were constantly texting and sending videos of our skills to each other.

The problem was that we didn’t have a trampoline anymore and I didn’t have many opportunities of practice my other tumbling skills. I practiced on a trampoline any chance I got, but that wasn’t very much. And slowly without me even realizing I stopped stretching so often and eventually slowly losing some of my skills.

I told my mom I wanted to go to gymnastics, but even though we looked we couldn’t really find any places to go to. All of the ones we saw looked like they were only for little kids. One day, my mom was talking to someone who recommended a place her kids used to go to.

This gymnastics place is very different from what I thought it would, be but in a good way! You can come any weekday to either the first or the second class. It’s completely up to you for what ever works best for you. You don’t have to sign up for a class, you just pay when you come. All classes include all skill levels and ages. Most of the kids are Asian, but everyone can speak English.

One of my favorite parts about the whole place is the teachers. The teachers are super fun and positive but also give really great tips and corrections. They push me to be better and help me feel confident doing skills that used to scare me while also making the experience fun and exciting. I’m also getting my flexibility and strength back.

One day I was at gymnastics, doing the exercises, when I broke my foot. I was jumping on and off a mat and my foot landed in a divot in the floor and I broke my 5th metatarsal. Right before vacation….great. Well after about three months of crutches and boot, I finally got to go back to gymnastics. My foot was sore for the first couple classes, but I ended up getting all of my skills back in no time. We also started going twice a week instead of only once.

My mom and I thought that Jeremiah might really like gymnastics, so when I went back Jeremiah came with me. At first he was he didn’t not want to go and all, but he eventually started to love it and is constantly practicing at home.

When we go into class, everyone starts running 10 laps around the gym. Then we do our workout exercises before stretching. For my exercises, I do 200 heel lifts on the beam, jump on and off a mat 40 times, do 40 V ups (I don’t know if that’s what they are called) and 20 push-ups. Once we are done with that, we move on to stretching. When we stretch, they push us into our stretches which sometimes hurts but helps so much. They always pop our backs after that which kinda hurts but in a good way.

Once I’m done I do 10 back bends, 10 handstands (I try to hold them for at least 5 seconds), 10 front walkovers, and 10 back walkovers. And then we split into little groups and practice different skills according to our skill level.

I am currently practicing a round-off backhand spring and a back tuck (backflip). I just only recently got my ariel (no handed cartwheel) but it is still hard. I can also now confidently do a standing back handspring. We spend most of our time doing floor exercises. I have done bars twice and vault once, but I have never done beam. (Thank goodness! Beam terrifies me!) I love learning tumbling skills because if you are confident enough you can use your floor skills anywhere.

I am a very determined and dedicated person. If I want to learn something or have some skill, I won’t stop until I get it…even if it takes years practice! Being the determined person I am, when I finally achieve something I have been working towards, I get so excited and feel so accomplished. It’s one of the best feelings! Going to gymnastics has been so much fun and I’m really glad I get to finally accomplish my goals!