A few good Women

My goal as a gymnast, was not to go to the Olympics, but instead to stretch my career as long as I could--with an ultimate goal of competing at the collegiate level. I had been riddled with injuries throughout my career ( which gymnast hasn't?) with the worst of the lot being a fractured back Freshman year...But, for me, there was no option. Gymnastics was life. There was no offseason, there was no other option. Eat, Gym, Sleep, Repeat.

Did I miss out on High School football games? Dances? Parties? You bet, I did.

But, the important thing is I didn't feel like I was missing out, because I was doing something I loved, and had a great group of friends on my gymnastics team...Besides, I got to travel, compete and see things that other teens my age were missing out on.

[hmm, go to a high school party vs. competing in the Bahamas?]

Well, I finally somehow finagled a spot on a collegiate gymnastics team. In August 1995, at age 17...I moved to UCDavis for summer training. There were 7 of us fresh faced freshies. The older girls who had apartments and houses each took a few freshmen on and we stayed with them until the dorms opened.

Little did I know that the girls I met that first day of summer training would end up being like sisters to me. We learned the ropes of bike riding to campus together on big ol hoopty bikes with wide handlebars, found out where the best bagels and smoothies were, and how to keep our backs from getting bike stripes in the rain.

[95-96 Freshman class]

Our team was like a sorority, only minus the cattiness. We all pulled for one another, whether it be to eek out the last tumbling pass on floor, or to help study for an O-chem test that was next to impossible to pass. It was a built in sisterhood, made of girls from all over the place, with gymnastics being the common denominator. We'd plan our class schedules together, so that we could have study groups together to complete homework assignments.

[Note writing in anthro class? Guilty. ..Evidence above]

Who am I kidding???We'd just schedule classes together so we could sit in the middle of the lecture hall, writing silly notes and pictures back and forth until one of us ended up laughing out loud, or in one instance, choke on a carrot stick while eating in a class where food and drink were prohibited. In my friend's defense...we had classes all day, then practice from 2-6 p.m. with a lecture from 7-10 p.m...We were training athletes and had to find sometime to eat a makeshift dinner..Heaven forbid she eat carrots in class!

Once Freshman year was over, most of us moved into apartments together. I lived with 2 other teammates, Missy aka. Pissy Sue ( How affectionate, I know.. She called me Beavis, so it's even), and shared a room with Dawn aka. Mac or Becca (don't ask). Some of the other freshman also moved in together in an apartment that some of our older teammates moved out of. They passed the torch, so to speak.

I guess what I am getting at is that I love the sisterhood that was formed on our gymnastics team. Most of us have all stayed in touch in day to day life, with at least a couple of our teammates, and all of us are on facebook, so we're all in touch in that sense. Many of us have stood as bridesmaids in a teammates wedding (or two or three), taken fresh cooked meals to those who have just become new parents and driven 50 miles to give someone a hug who most desparately needed a shoulder to cry on...Many of us have had heartbreaks and hardships, ups and downs, and we all have those one or two teammates from the UCD team that we know we can call on and count on for support.

[1996 team by yours truly]

I love the fact that it's been a good 12 years since I was a member of that team, and I still feel like we could all get together for a reunion and start right back up where we started... So many good memories made with A Few Good Women.