A gymnastics story...

Everything started with a little girl qualifying for North State gymnastics competition. This little girl had a mom that generally handled the gymnastics pressure well. The mom always tried to make positive comments and gave lots of encouragement.

After the little girl made it to North State, there was excitement for the mom, then worry followed it. If she did well, she was going to make it to State and if not, the season was going to end. But the State was in another town and the little girl was so excited about going there with other teammates.

Mom started thinking...
What was going to happen if she did not make it but most of her friends made it. These questions started to increase as the competition got closer. The closer the competition got, the bigger her worries became.

Four days before the meet, the mom started to wake up very early in the morning and just lay there... Thinking about possibilities...

What would happen if she does well at vault but what is she falls off the beam?
Am I insane?
What does she need to score to make it?
I need to go back to sleep?
I wonder what will be the rotation?
I might as well get up...
How do people do this when their kids move up to higher levels?
OK, I am up...

Her husband did not understand the worry. He was very supportive but kind of looked at her like "What is the big deal? This is life... She will win some and loose some"

In the mean while the little girl was just fine. No visible worries about the Meet, just excited. She did not much talk about the competition... Just kept going to the practices. While the mom was going through the emotional "turmoil", everything looked normal in her world...

Then the Meet day came...

Her brother told the little girl "I know you can do it, you worked so hard" adorably...

All the families sat on the bleachers with pounding hearts, especially moms. Worry was in the little girl's eyes also, but she was still confident, she was gonna make it...

And three girls who were trying to be in the top 10 lined up with everybody else...

It did not start well... They were so nervous, not sure how to handle the pressure...
But the families kept cheering, smiling with worry in their hearts.

At the end the placements were announced. Could it be true?

The girls finished 8th, 9th, and 10th... The little girl was in the middle...

The story ended with a sigh of relief and and some happy tears... Some were happy mommy tears...

They had the most deserved and happy smiles...

THE END
(Until the next big Meet)