Saturday night (2/17) I took Rachel to the Illinois State Girls Gymnastics Championships in Palatine, IL. Rachel was a gymnast in high school so she was really excited about seeing a gymnastics meet again. I, on the other hand, only have gymnastics experience every 4 years when the summer Olympics are on TV. Who can ever forget Kerri Strug and her valiant performance on 1 leg to win the gold that one year during the summer Olympics? I can remember back to my middle school years when my brother and my best friend were doing flips off of the stairs and landing on our bed mattress trying to stick the landing. That was the year the Romanians had a killer gymnastics squad. So, there you have my history of knowledge of gymnastics.
I must say though, Saturday night I was awed by the ability and bravery of these high school girls. Each competitor competed one at a time while the judges and the packed house gymnasium looked on. Talk about nervousness. I was nervous for the girls and I wasn't even competing and had no idea what to even look for in their routine. I was getting into it, emotionally and psychologically. I started to cheer for certain girls to do well and had to catch my breath when one girl fell flat on her face after missing the high bar during the uneven bar routine. I am so surprised that she got up with a smile after almost having her face indented in the mat. Rachel was so shocked that I enjoyed myself and quite frankly, so am I. I thought, just like my dad, that I was going to have to bring a book to keep me from boredom. Boy was I wrong. I give mad props to all of those girls who competed. There would be no way that I could do it. I'm so thankful that I played team sports all my life because you can always blame the effort of the team and not an individual. Those girls have way more guts than I ever did when I was in high school. And my wife was one of those girls.
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