Four hours a day, six days a week, 52 weeks per year, I’m committed to gymnastics. The sport that will prepare you for life.

There I was standing on the podium. One of seven girls, thinking it was a dream. With everything that had happened, I wouldn’t have ever thought I could make it. With hard work, I fought through what was one of the most challenging times of my life, which was when I wasn’t able to do gymnastics for at least 6-9 weeks due to a stress fracture in my back. My life was gymnastics, so in my mind, my life was over. I remember sitting at every practice, every competition, dieing to be out there. A part of me thought I could never overcome the injury, never be back as strong, while the other part knew not to give up. It was the drive within me that kept me going through the practices I had to sit through. After setting my mind to continue to do gymnastics, I never looked back. The long hours I have spent in the gym since I was two, was not something I was ready to give up. I set small goals, and worked hard. My family and friends were behind me, and were the needed support system. After all the hours I put in, and meets where I struggled due to my injury, I put it all together and realized the reason why I didn’t quit. When I heard my name called as one out of seven girls to qualify to the Junior Olympic National Championships was indescribable. Nothing will ever replace that feeling.

After overcoming this battle, I will be able to face any challenges that will come my way. Dealing with the adversity of not being able to compete, I continued to push through to make it in the end. I know that in college, as well as in my future, I will face adversity. No matter what it may be, the drive and determination within me to work through anything will be an important quality. If I wouldn’t have taken the chance of possible failure after coming back from my injury, I would have had to live without knowing I was blessed with earning such an opportunity. Everything will not always go my way, and being faced with this challenge while I was in high school, I have the mindset to deal with, and work through anything that comes my way.