Mesmerized, I stood at the center of the gym. All of the professional equipment seemed like a distant dream. I stood by four national ranked gymnasts, only to be more nervous than expected. Their names were as follows: Payson Keeler, Kaliey Cruz, Emily Kmetko, and Lauren Tanner. I didn't seem to fit in with anyone at the gym. I was too short and pale… and well… not good. I was more flexible than most girls but the problem was my lack of power. I got all of my powerful side out in my floor music, which I wrote. Everyone else seemed to have an amazing combination of both power and creativity. I looked at myself as an outcast from Arizona. I probably couldn't find a friend in any of the girls at the gym, probably not even the guys. I felt alone. Maybe moving here wasn't the best idea. Oh well, at least the coach liked me… sort of.
I lost my focus as I appeared scared at the sight of the unusually high uneven bars, the longer length of the floor section, the scary height of the vault, and worst of all, the longer balance beam. Beam was the only event that always screwed me up in competitions. I just couldn't trust such a thin piece of wood to hold me up I guess. I was never too bad at it I guess, it was when I went blind for a second, when I couldn't see the beam below me.
I decided to face my fear of this intense balance beam, so I walked over to it. I could see Lauren point at me while looking at the other girls. They all began talking in frantic whisper and the murmuring began. I jumped onto the beam cautiously. I slowly began strutting on it, to adjust my feet and body to the new length of the device. Once I seemed to calm myself down, I did a simple cartwheel. Somehow I managed to land firmly on my feet. Then I stood upon my hands, as I bent them, pulling them closer to my head. It was a basic gymnastics procedure, however I still had to adjust to the new conditions of this gym. As crazy thoughts of fitting in and growing in skill level ran through my head, I lost my balance. I fell onto the beam, neck first, causing blood, cold, crimson blood to pour from my neck. Oddly enough I felt no pain. Only the intense cries of laughter and humiliation rush through my body.
The next thing I knew was that I was waking up, in a small office just above the rest of the gym. This was a terrible was to start my first day. I noticed that it was hard to move my neck now… very hard. I looked into the closest mirror to see that a thick, white bandage was wrapped around my neck. As I walk into gymnastics training part of the gym I noticed many smiling faces. They weren't happy to see me back, but tickled to see my injury, which I should have never gotten. I grabbed at my duffle bag until I had a decent grip on it. I walked out of the gym, proudly, until I reached my car, and that's when I decided to drive home.
