Skyylah

My story begins like this. I started gymnastics when I was five and started competing when I was six. I was very self-confident until I had to have a heart monitor. If you’ve never seen one, I’ll say that it makes it hard to do tricks with it on. The doctor thought I had a problem with my heart. So I had to have a monitor on for 30 days and could not remove it. There were two sticky pads stuck to my chest and two long cords leading to a box. The box was to be connected to my clothes. When I felt dizzy, I had to press a button on the box, get to a phone, and call the hospital. There were times I had to stop practice and have the coach call the hospital. The worst part was that the monitor kept falling off my leotard, so I couldn’t learn new things. To make matters worse, I got a bad infection from the sticky pads. It was painful and itchy.

I started to fall behind, and we had a meet coming up. I had to go to extra practices on Saturday and try my best to learn what I needed to know for the competition. It was hard, and I was frustrated. I had one thing in particular that was hard for me to do—a dismount from the beam. I tried to learn it before the competition, but I didn’t get it. So the day of the competition, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was nervous and scared that we wouldn’t win a medal. When it was my turn, I got up on the beam and went for it—but I still couldn’t do it right. My coach said, "Good job. Try it next time." I felt good that she said that and thought I would be able to do it next time.

I had one more meet before I moved from Wisconsin to California. I still didn’t get that dismount at the next competition—but I did it better than the time before. This time I felt better about it because I knew I was closer to getting it right.

It is now three years later, and I still struggle with that dismount, but I have done it a few times—and will do it again. I love gymnastics so much that I will never give up!

- Skyylah, age 9, California