3B: 14 Years Strong

              Never having played another sport until my freshman year of high school, gymnastics was my absolute life. I loved everything about it.. still do at that. Practicing more than thirty hours a week at the age of twelve was something I loved doing, I loved practicing and training hard simply because I wanted to be the best. That was really the only motivation I needed to get up every morning before school and go to practice from 5 a.m. until 7 a.m, the only motivation I needed to go back to the gym after school and train from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. For fourteen years, I was motivated by victory and the love of the sport. Middle school was a time when kids were truly starting to find themselves, make friends and hangout; not for me, middle school marked a time where I started nationally competing and was in a different state every other weekend. I could say that it was purely the self-motivation that kept me going, but it really was the gold. The gold medal kept me going, winning my first national championship at the age of eleven in sixth grade was really the reason I was so motivated. I loved the feeling of being on top; from the age of ten until my last national competition in Seattle, Washington at the age of sixteen the top was where I was. I was a five time national championship and didn’t know what a silver medal was.. so if that’s not motivation enough to want to keep something going then I don’t know what is.

                It’s been nearly three years since I’ve been out of the sport and the love that I have for this sport will always be there, it grows every day. Gymnastics was a sport that instilled so much discipline and focus into me that during those years I was nationally competing my grades were higher, I was more respectful, kinder, and I was off of my ADHD medication. Though the physical aspects of gymnastics don’t help me with much in college (except for on the football and baseball field), the discipline and focus it instilled have helped me through high school and prep year. It taught such great time management skills at such a young age that those skills I learned at the age of thirteen just seemed to carry over to high school. My coaches’ motto was “If I can’t make you the next Alexei Nemov, I’ll make you well focused and disciplined young men who respect others and most importantly respect themselves.”