I believe in giving everything you have, your strength your endurance, and your heart in every task you complete. I believe in tasks that seem on the brink of impossibility but turn out otherwise. I believe in the last effort of hope that everyone possesses at some given point in their life time. I believe facing your fear after a tragic accident happens.

Fear is relatively new to me. I was used to living a nice and easy life. Grades used to come easy and gymnastics came relatively easy. There were some scary moments but, nothing as which I was soon to encounter. It became harder though over the years. As I grew older more injuries kept occurring; 2 tragic injuries took me out for 2 years. Nothing though no matter how scary could prepare me for the moment that everything would turn feet over head. Nothing at all. But before that moment about a year ago I realized gymnastics was just too much on my body. I had the uneasy thought of being done with it… once and for all. I believe though gymnastics has been way more than an afterschool activity. Gymnastics did not just teach me just skills it taught me traits such as hope, desire, strength, self-discipline and courage. The most that happened was this event. These traits were represented fully through this. The hope when everything seems impossible, the desire to want to win and put everything on the line for it, the mental strength you need to do a skill again after hurting, or failing miserably, the self-disciple to do you work, focus on the task at hand, or make tough decisions, and the courage to want to win and most importantly the courage to face your fear.

Here is the story of the tragic event. I have much fear in my life but never the agony of the high bar in gymnastics. About a year and a half ago I had one of the most tragic and intimidating moments of my life. I was going through an ordinary drill and lost my mental focus; probably thinking about dinner or school work. In the drill my task at hand was to let go of the eerie metal bar suspended 10 feet in the air and complete and double back salto; in other terms a double back flip. I let go to late did one flip, heard some yelling, and then heard a whack and fell towards the ground. Dripping in sweat and blood I blankly look up as my coaches rush towards me. In this moment I probably felt the most fear I have felt to myself in my life. I was rushed to the emergence room in my mom’s black and white Ford Flex. I was okay after 7 staples were put in my heard.

The one thing I regret about this moment was that I never had the courage to do that skill ever again in my life with gymnastics. Fear got the best of me in this moment. The one thing I have learned is courage can always rise above fear if you have the will to believe so.
Thank you for listening.