Gymnastics is in my Blood

I haven’t written a blog in far too long. This summer my thoughts have been tangled up in one another. It’s been a summer of chaos and conflicting feelings. I’ve spent weeks trying to figure out what’s my story to tell and what isn’t. I’m still trying to figure that out.

So today I’m going to try something different. Usually I write my posts in a notebook and then type them up, today I’m typing this on my phone and see how that goes. Maybe this way be an easier way for me to get my thoughts out right now.

It’s no secret that I’m disabled. I’ve always been disabled, I’m always going to be disabled. My cerebral palsy isn’t going anywhere. I’m not an athlete. I will never be an athlete, but that hasn’t stopped me from recently falling in love with gymnastics.

But maybe it’s not a new love maybe it’s always been there. I just had to recognize it and embrace it…

The people close to me and close to my family probably won’t be surprised by this new/old love. Gymnastics has always been in my peripheral. My mom grew up as a gymnast going to a local gym in our area. Gymnastics was such a part of her life that my grandmother became best friends with one of the owners. Some of my earliest memories are in that very same gym. From birthday parties to laying on the trampolines while people would jump around me so that I could bounce. To swinging on the bars during private lessons. To spending summers in elementary school at the gym while my mom coached summer camps there.

My love for the sport started to reignite during the 2020 Olympic Games watching Simone Biles navigate her mental health and become an advocate for how mental health will hopefully be handled within the sport moving forward.

Today as my mom and I watched our Team USA women march their way to victory by winning gold! I asked my mom if I was annoying her because of how much I was taking the athletes and our team. Her response was no gymnastics is still in my heart and soul.

Which is very obvious to tell because any curb my mom finds while walking, she still treats it like a balance beam.

I love that as a disabled woman with CP I can proudly say that gymnastics runs in my blood.