A Summer Containing the Best and Not-So-Best Parts of My Life✯

best | best | superlative of Good

adjective

of the most excellent, efficient, or desirable type or quality.

antonym: worst

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This has certainly been an exciting summer! For me. I mean, I didn't really see my friends that much or anything which some people would consider a complete fail but I did do/accomplish some other things which made it great. However, it has also been on of the most emotionally challenging summers with a few minor (a.k.a. major) bumps in the road.

A Random Collection of Recent Experiences

Not many of my recent posts have been about me personally, and I don't mean to sound narcissistic or anything, but a lot has happened in the past few weeks.

Meet...... My Teammates

My teammates. My obnoxiously weird friends. My competition. My family. No matter what, they're still my best friends. In fact they're pretty much my only friends apart from about seven, give or take a few, who I go to school with. In this post, I'm going to try to introduce each one so that if I ever name them in stories or future posts, you know exactly who I'm talking about. And I just think this is going to be a fun post.

Competition #3: Salt Lake City

So it's been a special week. It all started with the competition on Saturday......

Yes, we did not travel this time. It was not quite as exciting but also a nice break from all of the craziness involved with traveling. Well, at least that's what I was thinking. The meet took place at Salt Lake Community College. I would be lying if I told you that I was extremely overjoyed, because I had a really frustrating two weeks of workout.

Competition #1: Seattle/Tacoma

Well, I competed at my first meet in one and a half years! As I said in one of my previous posts, this meet was in the Seattle area, Tacoma specifically. My trip included three caesar salads, an extremely special floor routine, a Toblerone bar, and lots of glass.

We flew in late Thursday, and had a late dinner in the hotel restaurant. Friday morning, we got up around 9:00 AM, ordered room service for breakfast, and then went to the glass museum. I must mention that the glass museum was very, very cool. The first part was wandering around the gallery, where there were many different styles of glass artwork. Then, we went into the "Hotshop."There were live artists who actually blew glass right in front of you. It was pretty interesting to me, especially since I didn't know anything about glass art. (I didn't even know that glass was actually blown-- *facepalm.)

Holiday Extravaganzas!

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope everyone has been having a good break. I've had so much stuff going on lately and it's all been great. Two full weeks of "break" is great, but as one of my friends put it (check out her page here), teachers use it as an opportunity to load us with crap. I have had two huge projects, four finals to study for, and a few extra assignments. Yay!

For the entire first week, I procrastinated with everything. I pretty much just laid around with the occasional gymnastics practice. Then, I sort of got this sense of urgency (ohmygoshthesemesterendsinaweek) and got myself out of bed for reasons other than food, family, and gymnastics. Success!

SUCCESS! Photo courtesy: Satyavrat

The One and Only Meetersquad

It's not a typo. Meetersquad is a cross between a meet and intersquad. We had our first meetersquad on Saturday. Three of my teammates competed also. Jamie, Patrisha, and Gen. This competition was just like a meet with other gymnasts from other teams and real judges, but it was a "soft-landing" meet. That's when coaches can throw mats on the floor, spot gymnasts with less deduction, and gymnasts can land on soft, squishy mats.

Another Intersquad!!

We had another intersquad. Yay!! It was great...... not. One short explanation? We were all sick, including myself. I could barely get through a beam routine without getting out of breath. Well, we weren't also that ready, but let's blame it on the sickness.

This time, we competed vault. Mine were very weird and slow, and I barely made the flip around. My vault is a Yurchanko Pike (Weird names, I know). This time, I hit my beam routine. I thought it was great until the judge told me I had to many acro skills (A.K.A. flipping skills). How can you have too many acro skills? Isn't this gymnastics? Anyway, now I have to change my routine, so I am adding a sheep jump. I guess that'll look cool.

Intersquad Madness

It has been an interesting week. Coming in Monday, we all knew our coach would be a little crazy.

Wednesday was our first intersquad.

An intersquad is like an at-home meet. We have judges come in and judge us on our routines. The first one of the season is always nerve-wracking, especially when you don't have a routine. You have to swallow your pride and show a routine that is a levels below you. Keep in mind that these are the same judges that are judging at national competitions.

#TBT

What do you think of when you see #TBT? Chances are, if you are a teenager today (A.K.A. The technology age), and you have an Instagram or Twitter, you may think of "ThrowBack Thursday." However, if you happen to be a gymnast coached by Amanda Johanson, you will think of "Team Beam Tuesday."

On a usual day, we will have individual assignments given to us every day to complete, except for one day. On Tuesday, we must complete the assignment as a team. One at a time, each of us attempts the skill. Each time someone "sticks" or stays on the beam, we get a point, but each time someone falls, we don't get a point. If all of us sticks a round, then we only have to do it once and we have completed the assignment. If we don't make it, then we have to keep doing it over and over. A few times, it has taken less than five minutes to complete the assignment. On other days, we spend 45 minutes trying very hard just to complete a single round.