A Day at the Gym

Walking into the familiar gym, I think about why I still do gymnastics.  I remember how in the Olympics the gymnasts looked so beautiful in the way they moved their bodies and how smoothly they could jump and leap with straight legs and pointed toes.  They could flip high in the air, soaring like birds.  I also remembered the first day I started gymnastics.  I was two when I started doing somersaults in my house.  I would lay my head down on the ground, leaning forward and kicking my legs up to roll over.  My parents took me to “My Little Gym” so I could do gymnastics at a real gymnasium.  Soon I started doing cartwheels and handstands.  As soon as I learned how to do a front tuck, I immediately loved it.  I loved the feeling of flipping, especially when I started flipping in the air, soaring through the sky just like the Olympians.  This is how I am coded for gymnastics.

Now I realize how hard it can be.  As I walk over to my locker, I try to calm my sweaty palms and nervous shuddering breaths as a result of a fear of the round off back handspring back tuck.  I flipped it over many times, but had somehow lost the skill when I didn’t do it for a period of time.  I had had a mental block on it, flipped it over one day, but lost it again.  Now was the time to get it back and keep it forever.  I realize how I had just focused too much on the small details of the skill and I should have looked at it as a whole.  I felt so connected to the others who had a mental block too, because we shared the same frustration and fear of certain skills, and we could talk about it openly.  All of my teammates who had mental blocks like me.  We discussed how hard it was to get over the bump in the road and how you just had to go for it.  I know that today is the day to get the skill.  Accomplishing the skill didn’t involve breaking it down and looking at all the separate parts and overthinking it.  It did involve looking at the skill as a whole and looking at the beauty of it.  

When my team finally gets to the floor, I warm up my round off handsprings, thinking don’t get overwhelmed with the small details.  Don’t think about the possibilities of falling.  Don’t try to stop yourself.  As my coach, Jillian, walks over to the floor to spot me and help me with the skill, I walk slowly, stalling for time, over to my starting corner.  Deep breaths, deep breaths, I thought, just think of how easy the skill is when you think of it as a whole.  My teammates cheer me on, helping me relax and focus.

I take one last deep breath and ran.  I feel my hands hit the slightly squishy floor and then my feet, then back onto my hands again and I fly through the air for the back flip.  Before I know it, the skill iss over and I have done it!  Everyone claps and congratulates me as I walk over to sit down on the big squishy blue mat.

Another way gymnastics is a whole, not just individuals is that teammates cheer you on, and that’s what creates a team.  The team is like the ants who all work together.  We each have our own strengths, but we work together to win team awards and get good scores.  We help each other succeed by giving each other advice and by cheering each other on.  We support each other and make each other successful.

One Should Stay Flexible

The pancit noodles were staring back at me.  Ew. Gross.  I picked at it with my fork and thought, Should I try it?  Bleh, maybe not.  Then again, I might like it.  My friend cheered that I should eat it, and it was an authentic Filipino dish.  I held my breath and sucked in a small bite of noodles.  Not too bad, I thought.  I stuffed some more in my mouth and licked my lips.  I told my friend how delicious it was.  Now, I look back on this day and find that I am very glad I had been open minded and ate the pancit, because now it is one of my favorite foods.  One should be willing to change one’s mind when circumstances change, because one will enjoy life more, learn more, gain more interaction with others, have more educated opinions, and have more experiences.  

We often form opinions about people before we truly know them, so we must be willing to change those opinions.  My aunt used to be quite racist, because everyone in her neighborhood was raised to believe that some ethnic groups were “better” than others.  Soon, different races started moving in to the neighborhood, and, as the circumstances changed, my aunt grew open minded and talked to her next door neighbor who was a different race.  They grew to be close friends, and my aunt learned that staying open minded can make you gain friends and enjoy life.  As another example, when I was in Mr. Shah’s class, I didn’t like him at first.  I gave him a chance, learned more about him like the fact that he made us laugh and enjoy science.  He taught us a lot in science and said if you hug a cloud, you’ll end up hugging yourself to teach us about the water cycle.

Those who are too stubborn to change their minds when circumstances change miss out on learning, life experiences, and happiness.  Being stubborn is definitely not good in the way that my sister is so stubborn she won’t change her mind about how learning takes too much effort.  She refuses to do her homework and is so stubborn about it, she always has to do it in the last minute.  She does it only because of the thought that the teacher would yell at her if she didn’t.  My sister should not wait until the last minute, because it causes her to get stressed out, frustrated, and she loses sleep.  When she gets older and much busier, she will learn that she needs to stay open minded and will study harder to keep from being stressed out.  Another example of stubbornness is when my teacher only wanted the part of Little Red Riding Hood in a play she auditioned for.  It was a musical, and her voice range was more fit for one of the princesses.  She refused to change her mind and accept one of these parts, so she wasn’t even cast in the play in the end.  My teacher had really wanted to be in the play, but her insistence on the one part made her not get into the play and miss out on the entire experience.

In some points in life, it’s okay not to change one’s mind about topics.  Maybe pancit doesn’t taste good to certain people.  They could always push it away politely instead of missing out in case they did like it.  Maybe my chorus teacher would not have liked the princess parts as much, but she still should have tried it.  She would have at least had a chance to be in the play.  One should stay flexible and try new things even if one might not like it.