#52 STORIES #2

What is something you taught yourself to do without help from anyone else?

This one is hard because I don't believe there is something that we accomplish without the help of someone.

I would have to say that the thing I believed I worked hardest at to accomplish was learning to do gymnastics.   I loved watching others do it and soon found my self trying to do all the tricks.   I didn't really have any formal training till high school. 

When I was seven or eight my mother had me in piano lessons.   I tried really hard to play the piano for my mother because I knew how much she loved it.  Finally after three years of struggle the piano teacher told my mother, "She doesn't get it, she can't do it, you are wasting your money."   My mother than asked me if there was something else I would like to do and I said I wanted to learn to tumble.   The only option was a dance class where at the end of class the teacher would teach a few basic tumbling moves.   She would put the mat over the balance beam and we would do back and front walk overs over it.   I loved the feeling of using my body in this way.   A few years down the road I attended a few summer camps put on by the local college.

I still didn't know the proper form and just knew the basics but I was constantly doing cartwheels, handstands, headstands, summersaults all over the place.   I have a few grandkids that do the same thing.   I love watching it because it reminds me of when I did the same things.   I would be playing softball and when there was a break I would do cartwheels or handstands.  I watched Liv, my seven year old granddaughter at the boys ball games, she did cartwheel after cartwheel on the side of the Basketball court.  I loved watching it and I knew just how she felt.  When I started 10th grade at Carbon High School I found out that they had a gymnastics class but you had to be on the team to take the class.   I did not get accepted in the class.  I was very disappointed.  I went in and begged the couch to please let me take the class.  I would try real hard and not expect to be a part of the team.   She told me I could but not to expect much help from the coaches.    I loved learning new things from watching the other girls.   I participated with out much help from the coaches.   I would go home and practice back walkovers on the chicken coop roof.   It had a slight slant to it and made it easier to do the trick.   I was constantly stretching , doing handstands, front walkovers, and many other tricks.  I am sure it drove my family crazy.   I soon starting gaining enough strength, control, and flexibility to earn a spot competing.  I was on the team all three years.   I am amazed at what I learned and was capable of at the end of the three years.  At the end of three years at an awards assembly for the school I was awarded a trophy for the most improved.   I still wasn't real good but I had improved greatly.   By the end of the three years  I had learned to do the vault, balance beam, bars, and floor. 

After I graduated I made the team At CEU college.   My body was at it's peak performance.  I loved the feeling of being able to have so much control over my body.  I had mastered cartwheels and back walk overs on the balance beam,   a bar routine,  front and back walk overs, yogi handstands and many other things.  Then along came Lyle who became more important than everything else and I decided to get married and have a family, with no regrets.   So I never did compete at the college level.   But I consider this something I taught myself because of the drive I had within me to learn and push my self to achieve these things.