A few months ago I found a bunch of my old gymnastics stuff in my closet.  It was exactly three years ago this month that I quit.  Many of my old friends continue doing it, and it saddens me every time I think of it.  Memories, memories.

  When I was three my mom put me in ballet, but realized soon that that was not right for me when I began doing cartwheels on the side instead.  Immediately she put me in gymnastics.  Then I went to AZ Power Elite Cheer Olympics Gymnastics sometime after we moved to AZ.  By the time I was barely seven, I could do eleven backhand springs in a row (that was my record) and soon started doing tucks (though I lost it when I fell on my head at school, something I have no memory of).  Then I went to Olympic Gymnastics.  They hardly allowed me to do anything besides the fact that I was beyond the level they had me at, so after a while with a few tumbling classes here and there I went to Diamondback Gymnastics.  The summer before fifth grade, I was moved up to Level 4 as a result of me doing thirty leg lifts w/o stopping.  It was nine hours a week, but I loved it.  I made friends and learned many things. I even got a six pack!  But it grew too difficult.  Even as a fifth grader, I had so much homework because I went to Neely (a Traditional Academy).  I also remember times being in tears because it was so exhausting, physically and mentally.  On top of this, it was expensive, and in another six months I would probably move up to Level 5 and work 12 hours a week.  My mom says that I decided "my Advanced Writing is more important to me than gymnastics."  Still it was almost heart-breaking.  Since then I have done a few tumbling classes (I think it's worth mentioning the time when one of my tumbling coach's, actually my old Power cheer coach, assistant lied to me when she said she would spot me in a round-off-backhand-spring-back-tuck.  I landed it, and then she told me that she didn't spot me and told me to do it again.  Still dazed, I obeyed, but it clicked while I was in the air in the middle of my tuck, and I fell on my head.  I was unhurt.) and have also made the Boys Basketball cheer squad both years at HJHS.

  Again, it saddens me every time I see all my friends moved up to higher levels and doing things that I now will never do. But I recently I came to realize something.  During the same month that I quit, Rachel and I tried out for GFAA's Back to the '80's.  This changed my life.  Since then we have done these plays every year: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Curtains, and The Mikado.  Although I have just been in the ensemble (though they considered Rachel and I as the "twin cheerleaders" in Back to the '80's before deciding we were too young), I adore the stage.  Because of this (and maturity) my shyness has finally been cast aside.  I love to act, dance....... and sing.

  I realize the direction my life is going would be totally different if I hadn't quit gym and tried out for the play.  Even in just the past three months especially I have realized what a joy it is to me.  Sister Cavenee, our stake's best music person (which says a lot), does group lessons the last three months of every year.  I begged my mom to let me take lessons from her, even payed for most of it, despite the fact that my age is the youngest she accepts because she has made girls cry.  The three songs I did were Colors of the Wind, The Song of Redeeming Love, and 2000 Decembers Ago.  I do not understand how she has made people cry, because her intenseness is what makes her an amazing teacher.  She actually told me that I was the most mature of all the fourteen-year-olds she has taught, because I listen to her when she tells me to do something, even if it sounds weird or humiliating.  And it always works! People have told me for a while that I sing good, but these lessons have really helped me.  I do not speak pridefully, but will say that, especially with 2000 Decembers Ago, I have discovered talent that people say is much beyond my age.  I have been so blessed.  Although I do not want to "try out for American Idol" as Heidi suggested, I want to use this newly-found talent for the best, sharing my testimony of the true Gospel through music.  

  Although some things may seem sad or disappointing, as I have learned, it always blossoms into the best.