My One Month Anniversary

Whoops. I meant to do this yesterday, but I did have a midterm today.  So I decided to be responsible and study for my midterm last night, instead of blogging about my one month anniversary.  But now, I’m supposed to be studying for my midterm on Thursday, and I’m blogging.  Of course.

And it’s official.  One month (and  one day) ago, I got a new ACL :). So far our relationship is pretty decent… hopefully it’s with me for the long haul.  (Also side not, today, 2/21/12, is my half birthday. Woo!)

Anyways, these last couple days in the gymnastics world of UC Davis has not exactly been the best. I got to travel with the team to Air Force on Friday, even though I wasn’t competing.  But still, I was so excited to travel—to even be allowed to go.  I felt like I really needed the pick-me-up, considering I was reaching a little bit of a lull in my rehab journey.  Right now I’m at the point where I have pretty small, stupid looking exercises, that I do lots of numbers of… and they still hurt.  Not to mention I’m still losing leg muscle at an alarming rate.  Which is frustrating.  Especially considering how much I could actually do, and how strong I felt when I didn’t even have a functioning ACL.

But back to Air Force.  I just really enjoyed being with the team, and being seen as a part of the team to everyone we encountered—from the airport to the hotel to the restaurant—I was proud to be a UC Davis gymnast.  The meet itself wasn’t our best.  We kind of had some mishaps.  Some that were pretty uncharacteristic; others that we can’t seem to get rid of.  But at the same time, I saw so many things that I was proud of.  Just like every other meet and every day at practice, I saw people fighting through pain and injuries, showing that they are tough and want to do everything they can for the team.  I watched my teammates make smart decisions on doing what was best for their bodies, and I watched some of them do what they needed to in order to stay on their feet.  I even saw some people do their best routines of the season (even though the scores definitely didn’t reflect it).  And most excitingly, I saw us pick back up the energy during a really tough event.  And when things could’ve easily continued down the rough road we were on, we finished the meet with two very strong beam routines.

Sure there were things we could’ve changed, and our coaches have definitely pointed them out.  But I still believe in every single one of them.  I believe that they can hit routines.  And I believe that they can hit them pretty well at that.  And of course, I’m still proud to be an Aggie.  I can only hope that one day, I can represent this school with just as much passion and determination as they do. 

In the meantime, it’s back to the grind.  If you can even call it that.  One month down…