Is It Easter Yet?

Image courtesy of interflora

Easter is a time for eggs, chocolate, and community service. Even though Easter is still a week away, today I made fifty-four Easter baskets for the Christian Center. Yep! I did that all by myself. Just kidding, I had some help. I worked with a group called the National Charity League. It is a mother / daughter group who works with different charity groups. So, about ten girls and their moms came over to my house to make Easter baskets. Everyone was instructed to bring trinkets to put in the Easter baskets like pencils, stickers, bubbles, etc. And of course, the chocolate and fruit snacks.

All of our Easter baskets!

But before this whole event started my friend Elise came over to my house. Elise and I had been planning to make homemade ice cream for a few months, and we finally found a day where we both could. Elise came over, and we had a marvelous time making homemade vanilla ice cream with strawberries. It was quite delicious. Next, we made brownies, (the fudge-y ones, not the cake-y ones) but we are lame because we just made them from a box. But it was ok, because they were for the Easter-basket-making group anyways.

After Elise left, my mom and I began setting up all of the Easter basket trinkets, the food, and cleaning up the house. People began to arrive, and all of the girls started stuffing the Easter eggs with chocolate eggs and fruit snacks. After filling about one hundred Easter eggs, we all grabbed a basket and filled them until they were overflowing with the Easter goodies. 

Once we were finished, we ate the wonderful food I picked out. There was a fruit plate (but fresh fruit from the grocery store my mom cut right before which tastes a lot better than a tray that already has fruit cut on it that you buy at the grocery store) and a veggie plate with hummus (also freshly cut). But enough with the healthy food. We also had chex-mix (most people just picked out the M&Ms), which I made myself, and the yummy fudge-y, not cake-y brownies. YUM. That was the perfect combination of healthy and non-healthy foods.

The next day, I went with my mom and dropped off all of the Easter baskets at the Christian Center. They asked if they could take a picture of me with the baskets, and they put it on their Facebook page. I am now famous.

Yep. Famous. I mean there are eighteen likes and everything.

Meet 2

Five days after my first track meet, there was a second. This meet was more fun and less chaotic, in my opinion. There were about half the amount of people who went to this meet than to the last. Guess what that means…..NO CROWDED SCHOOL BUSES! There were only two to a seat, and no one was on the floor. YAY! While on the bus, Daisy and I decided to play card games. This was quite fun, and we surprisingly did not have the complications of the slipping, sliding, and falling cards until we were towards the end of the ride. 

We got to the meet, unloaded, and waited to see what we were going to run. This meet was set up differently than the last one. The first meet, everyone had to be registered in advance for what event they would be doing and that was the coaches job. At this meet, we could do up to four events, and choose whatever we wanted. I decided to do the one-hundred, two-hundred, four-hundred, and long jump. But it wasn’t as easy as that. I mean, I am super bad at making decisions, so it took me a while, and I still wasn’t sure if I was going to run some of those events for sure until it came time for them. 

The 100 was the first event, followed directly by long jump. Then I just hung out on the bleachers while waiting for the 400-hundred. This was the first time I had ever run the four-hundred at an actual race pace. I had run it as a slow jog, but never for time. This was the event I was debating about doing the most. I finally decided to run it when they announced the last call for the event. Last was the two hundred, which I knew I definitely was going to do. After that is was time to wrap up in a blanket, huddle with your teammates, and cheer everyone else on. 

Sunset at the end of the meet!

Meet 1

Today was my first track meet ever. I was not feeling very prepared because there have only been two weeks of practice, but, it went pretty well. It was Friday, so we still had school, but it was a super short day because there was a debate tournament at the school. When we got out of school at eleven-thirty, Daisy, Ali, Ansley and I went to El Chubasco for lunch. This place is amazing. (I seem to say that about every restaurant. I guess you could say I just love food.) 

After stuffing ourselves as much as we could without getting sick when we run, we walked over to the Maverick gas station. Ummm…why would we go to the gas station? None of us have cars….well, here is my explanation. I was freaking out because I didn’t have any gum so I convinced them to go to the gas station so I could buy gum. Yep. That happened. So while we were at the gas station, everyone else bought some candy to put in the food locker for school. Yes, we have a food locker, no, you cannot have the combination. 

Waiting for our first event to start.

From the gas station we walked back to the high school and got ready for the meet. We got back a little later than we had hoped, so while we were scrambling around for our uniforms, the team started to load onto the bus. By the time we were on the bus, it was totally full. Luckily, Daisy, Ansley and I found a seat, but Ali had to cram into a seat with two other unknown girls . Whoops. Sorry Ali. You may think, “Eh, that’s not bad”, but imagine a bus filled with seventy-two high school students (we happened to have exactly the maximum capacity allowed on the bus), with all of their school bags, and track bags. There were three students to a seat, and some people had to sit on the floor by the emergency exits. It was about a forty-five minute drive.

 We arrive at the track meet, and that is when the commotion escalates even more. No one has any idea what we are going to run, when each event is happening, where the coaches are, where we need to be, etc. It didn’t help that the upperclassman were not at this meet to help guide us through the chaos and cluelessness. 

Finally, the coaches return, and told us our events. I was told I was running the coed-sprint medley, and doing long jump, but I was still freaking out because I didn’t know what leg of the medley, if I was supposed to be somewhere for long jump, or if the two events ended up overlapping. It all worked out though, and I ended up running the first leg, the one-hundred, of the medley. Then I did long jump. Then of course, after the long day at the track, there was another cramped bus ride back to the high school. One meet down, thirteen to go!

More Nerves

The very first track meet of the season is tomorrow. This is also my very first track meet ever. I know it is pretty obvious, but track is TOTALLY different than gymnastics. 

Here are a few of my reasons:

1. I have had practice for two weeks, and about two-thirds of us have no experience with track what-so-ever. With gymnastics, we had about nine months of training before the first meet. 

2. I have no idea what I will be running, along with everyone else. So I will find out at the meet. With gymnastics, you know what you will be competing two weeks in advance, at the very latest.

RUN! (that's me)

3. The coaches don’t know who you are. You could start talking to a coach about something you discussed the day before, and they don’t remember what you are talking about (this happened to me today). With gymnastics, at least with my team, the coaches know you as well as your parents do.

4. The team is HUGE. There are about one-hundred people on the track team, girls and guys. My gymnastics team only had ten people on it, all girls.

5. I am still clueless. I have no idea what the meet is going to be like, and what to do. With gymnastics, I knew every little detail there was to know. 

6. Everybody knows everybody, but not really. We all go to the same school, so I recognize most people on the team, but I don’t actually know them yet. With gymnastics, I knew my teammates so well, it was like they were my sisters.

Luckily, some of my friends on the team will be there so we can be clueless together!

Track and Time

Track is five days a week after school. As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea what I am doing, so today I decided to go with the sprinters. We warmed up inside, then went outside to the track. After running, we did some abs. I know this is weird, but I LOVE ABS. Anyways we had a plank competition. Everyone had to hold plank for thirty seconds, then it was a competition to see who could hold it the longest. I don’t mean to brag or anything…(cough, yes I do, cough)…but I won! I held plank for six minutes and fifty-four seconds. Being a gymnast definitely came in handy.

The rest of the week consisted of indian sprints, stairs, starts, mat runs, ankles, and more abs. On Thursday, I also decided to try hurdles. Hurdles are usually for tall people….but….wait for it…. I was not the shortest one there (I need a clapping emoji)! We didn’t actually jump over the hurdles, but we did a bunch of drills. There were about six of us who decided to try hurdles, and all of us were new to them. It was nice that I was not the only clueless one there.

Image courtesy of tmelero.com

Gymnastics took up twenty-four hours of my week. The rest of my time was spent going to school, doing homework, and sleeping. That’s about it. Now, about ten of those twenty-four hours a week are spent doing track. That leaves me with fourteen hours left. This leaves me plenty of time to do homework AND watch T.V.. WHAT IS THIS WORLD!? To blow your mind even more, on Friday, I was an actual teenager. If you are a gymnast, you know what it is like. You have VERY little social life. On this day, Ali, Daisy and I did not go to track because the honors chemistry placement test for next year was at the same time. When we finished the test, the three of us went to The Mine Bouldering Gym in Kimball Junction. After climbing for about an hour and a half, we walked over to Cafe Rio (I need the heart eyed emoji because it is delicious!). We ran into two other friends and the five of us ate dinner together. It was so fun! AND THEN to add to this day, my friend Jamie from gymnastics came to my house. We played board games, ate pizza, and watched Despicable Me in Spanish. I would say this was another successful week.

Day 1

So, now that I have so much time on my hands, I need something to do. It has been two weeks since I have quit, and so far all I have done is watch Netflix. Luckily, it was a break so I could get away with it. But now that break is over and school is starting again, that will not be happening. Sunday night before school, my mom and I were talking about school sports. So I texted my friend Daisy, and she told me she was doing track, and practice started sometime that week. I had nothing better to do so I thought I might as well try it out! Well, that wasn’t exactly my mind set. Even when I got to the high school I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to practice. Daisy and I convinced our friend Ali to go to track with us. Oh, I forgot to mention track was that Monday. So, as we walked into the high school, I was still trying to convince Daisy and Ali that we should just go to Ali’s house instead. But they convinced me to go. The coaches started talking, and I had no idea what they were talking about, so I just followed Daisy (who did cross country earlier in the year and knew what she was doing) and ended up going with the long distance runners. 

Daisy and I in our uniforms!

This may be kind of sad to some of you guys, but the most I have run before is three miles. This was also the last time I ran distance, period. And it happened to be in May. It is now February. Nine months ago. If you know anything about track, (which I don’t), you would know the longest distance you run is two miles. WRONG. Well, kind of. Yes, in meets, you only run two miles, but not in practice. The long distance coach begins telling us about our training schedule and goals for the year. Everyones goal is to run ten miles by the end of year. TEN MILES!? WHO RUNS TEN MILES? Not me. For sure. Ali and I look at each with the “ARE YOU CRAZY?” kind of look. Then I look over to Daisy, the experienced one, and she has the “no big deal” face on. Alright….looks like we are running ten miles today. Except that didn’t happen. THANK THE LORD! Ali and I ran four miles (which is the most I have ever run. Yes, I know. Hold the applause.) and everyone else ran eight miles. So I guess you could consider my first day of track a success.

Full of Blocks of Foam

The dirty, pungent, itchy thing full of blocks of foam. You never know what is down there: socks, bandaids, food, and of course the dust, dirt, and dead skin. When you land, the contents fly into your nose, eyes and mouth. Yep, sounds delightful. It is like looking at a ball pit you played in as a child thinking, “Why in the world did I ever enjoy this? Nasty.”

But…..

The fluffy, injury free, life saving thing full of blocks of foam. Like landing in a cloud of comfort. You can land on your head over and over, and get right back up and try again like it never happened. 

For example...yes, this is me.

So, how can I be describing the same thing? What is this revolting yet glorious “thing”? Three words: the foam pit. 

Image courtesy of Firestorm

 The pit is the life-saver for all gymnasts. You can chuck almost any skill imaginable, and come out perfectly healthy. Well, other than the contents you inhaled when you landed. Truly, the worst outcome is getting stuck head first and needing your teammates to dig you out. 

But…after a certain amount of time, the foam blocks get packed down, calling for a fluffing. This means the whole team jumps in the pit and starts throwing all of the blocks out until you reach the bottom. The job of fluffing the pit fits my initial description: nasty. The pit is about eight feet deep and contains one thousand blocks, all of which must be taken out. As you get closer to the bottom, the grosser it gets, as the small items weave their way through to settle down there.

No matter how many points I make on how horrible the job of fluffing the pit is, I have to admit, I do enjoy it. It is a time where my teammates and I can talk about things other than gymnastics. We come up with games to play or blast the music and sing at the top of our lungs. Some of the younger girls try to build tunnels in the foam, and us older girls help them since we are pros from doing the same thing forever ago.

One activity we do to entertain ourselves while emptying the pit is to throw all of the blue blocks on one side of the pit, and black blocks to the opposite side. Then once the pit is empty, we push all of the blocks in, and the two colors of the pit are divided in half. 

Foam Art in 2010 (sorry its kind of blurry!)

During the process of putting the blocks back in, someone always ends up getting pushed in with the blocks, and sinks all the way to the bottom. It is always interesting to figure out a way of getting them out without getting stuck yourself. And when all of the blocks are put back in and we have finished admiring our masterpiece, everyone wants to jump in. We jump off the bar, or throw the little girls in just to have them get stuck again.

Another time we really enjoy the pit is during sleepovers at the gym. When you are younger, it is the first place everyone wants to sleep. Looking back to those past sleepovers, I still don’t understand how I could ever sleep in there. Maybe because it is warm and makes you feel safe when you are little? Well, maybe not, since there is always the rumor of the pit monster. It is also the go-to hiding spot for the little ones when we play night games. And of course you can use the pit and the area surrounding it to make an exceptional fort.

So overall, the pit is the best invention ever. It is life saving when you are doing skills, and a good time to bond with the team when it calls for a fluffing. So to whoever invented the pit, I give you a round of applause. You are a genius. 

My Team

According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of teammate is “a fellow member of the team”. Since I spend more time each week with my team than I do with my family, this is not “deep” enough for my liking. I would consider my teammates to be more like sisters. Sometimes we drive each other insane, but we always have each others back.

At gymnastics, I train with levels six through ten, and we sometimes spend time with levels two through five, who are adorable. In level six through ten, there are nine of us total who are ages eleven through sixteen. We spend twenty-two and a half hours training together every week, but not even that is enough. We get together outside of the gym almost every weekend, and never get tired of each other. This weekend, Friday after practice we went to dinner and to see a movie, and Sunday we went to brunch.

Sunday Brunch

There is never a dull moment with my team. We all have our own unique personalities, and when you put us together, you never know what will happen. We can tell the same stories over and over again, and they never get old. Even the most boring thing you can possibly think of can be turned into a game or something enjoyable.

For me, traveling for competitions with my team is the most exciting thing. I absolutely love exploring a new place with my best friends by my side. I am stoked for this upcoming season, we are going to Colorado Springs, Colorado, Phoenix, Arizona and Sacramento, California. At each of these competitions, we always have a team dinner, going somewhere interesting that seems to resemble the culture, or stereotypical culture, of each place. This year, two of the competitions have a gymnast after party, where everyone who has competed gets to hang out with their teammates and look like idiots together.

Besides all of the partying, there is the actual competition part of the meets, where the nerves are high and all of your hard work in the gym can pay off. I believe this is something that really brings the team closer together. We are competing with each other, as well as against each other. We have that passion to beat each other while still wanting our teammates to do their best. Even if I do not do too well, if my teammate rocks it, it brings my spirits up.

My teammates and I go through everything together, and have seen the best in each other as well as the worst. There are not enough words to describe the bond my teammates and I have, but if I had to come up with a new definition for “teammate”, it would be this: “an additional family member you can rely on to be your confidant, your cheerleader and your best friend”.