This I Believe
“Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up” (Thomas Edison). I just wish I would have believed the same thing when I was younger…. Everyday that I had my gymnastics classes in the evening, I could not wait until it was time to put my leotard on and go. I loved jumping on the trampoline into the pit of soft cube blocks, doing flips on the springy board, and swinging from bar to bar. However, one day I missed the other bar and fell onto my arm.
I can still remember the splintering pain I felt shooting up my arm and the look on my mother’s face, but what I remember more than anything was how horrified I was while getting my x-rays. Once they were done I learned that I had severely broken my arm and I was going to have to get surgery. I was so terrified about getting surgery, but afterwards when I woke up with my pink cast I was feeling a little better.
Then later on that week my mom sat me down to have a talk with me. She asked me if I wanted to go back to gymnastics or not. I decided that I loved gymnastics and I wanted to go back, but I didn’t want to do anything that required me to be high up, so I just stuck to tumbling on the floor. Even though I really enjoyed doing tumbling I never was really that excited for my gymnastic classes like I was before. I was always scared of falling and hurting myself, so I eventually quit.
Looking back on my decision now it really upsets me. I let the fear of hurting myself keep me from something I really loved. Of course I have found other things that I enjoy doing, but none of them compare to how much I enjoyed gymnastics and I really regret quitting. Considering how young I was when I started, and how much I had progressed by the time I quit, I do think that I had the ability to become a good gymnast and I shouldn’t have given up. Now I never allow myself to quit something and I believe that there is never a good reason for giving up. When I watch other people give up on something I feel horrible for them, they never know how they might feel about their decision in the future.