For the love of gymnastics...

I have a love/hate relationship with this amazing sport. I grew up a gymnast... I spent many years doing, eating, sleeping, and breathing anything that had to do with gymnastics. I certainly was nothing spectacular when it came to performance, but my heart was bigger than my talent when it came to the sport.

I have battled with thoughts of signing Olivia up for gymnastics classes. It truly is an amazing sport and can teach children so much about discipline, exercise, working hard, and grace. It also has some negatives... it's hard on your body. There is such an emphasis on body image. It's so competitive. I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to even enter into this temptation. Would I be able to say no if she was somehow amazingly talented at gymnastics and in a few years could be competitive? And so on...

In the end, my love for the sport won. She's only 4. And she was so excited to take her first gymnastics class. And her coach was my coach when I was a little girl. We've both been bitten by the gymnastics bug... one of us for the second time. Whether it's something she loves for only a short time or whether it becomes a sport she enjoys for many years... it's all for the love of gymnastics.