Gymnastics Story

[gymgurl]

Okay, for my HSC (I guess its like you're SATs? - Basically its our final exams to determine our uni entry score) english exam we have to do an Area of study unit which makes up one of our two papers. Basically part of paper 1 is a creative writing on belonging, I struggle with creative writing so my tutor and I went and decided to stick with what i know and we went with gymnastics.

So my question is:
I need an idea for a piece of creative writing involving belonging as the main theme and it is to be set in a gym. Have you or your dd's got any experiences you would like to share that could make a short story? or any tips in general?

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

This is what I went through at gym. Whether it would make a good story or not, I have no idea. Just thought I'd share it with you to throw some options out there. So, here goes:

I started gym when I was 5. I went to the same gym for 4 years. You had to switch classes every 6 months, since the classes were grouped by age, not level. It was a bit hard to make friends that way, since it was constantly changing. I usually managed to make one or two friends each time though, even though I used to be super shy. I'm still working on getting over my shyness, but it's getting much better.

Anyways, when I was 9, that gym got too easy for me, and I was at the most advanced class. So I switched to another gym. This one is a much better one, and the classes are by level, not age. I was the youngest one in the class. Most of the other girls were about 11-13 years old. There were 2 other girls in the class who were my age, but they were best friends and didn't really talk to anyone else. The older girls just kind of grouped together and talked the whole time. I didn't talk to anyone at all, since I was so shy and nobody seemed interested in me. I mean, I seriously did not talk. I didn't even want to talk to the coaches. I didn't say anything unless someone asked me a question that required an answer where I couldn't just nod or shake my head.

I didn't really mind not having friends though. I was there to learn gymnastics and get better, not to talk. None of the other girls were very serious about working. They just sat around and talked until they got yelled at. So I just kind of went to my own little space and worked really hard. The coaches noticed and occasionally mentioned to the other girls how hard I was working and that they should be doing that too. Sometimes a coach would come up to me and tell me I was doing a good job and they appreciated how hard I was working. I would just smile, nod, and keep working, but inside, I was just beaming. It made me feel so good that someone had noticed me.

This went on for a couple of years. At first I was okay with it. Then, I started getting really annoyed with the other girls and how I was the only one doing anything. Usually I wouldn't pay attention to people like them, but they ended up holding everyone back. The coaches spent a lot of time yelling at them for not doing anything. I honestly still cannot figure out why those girls bothered coming. Whenever they were told to do something, they would just complain about it and keep talking. They cheated at all the conditioning, and the coaches eventually gave up on trying to tell them to not cheat. Also, since I was so quiet, nobody noticed me. Even the coaches seemed to ignore me and forget I was there. I know they probably didn't, but it didn't make me feel very good. I was actually considering quitting. I told myself to just stick it out, and that eventually it would get better. It did, but at a large cost.

A few months after I started getting really frustrated, my coach had another kid. She was 25 years old with two kids. She told us that she would be switching to another gym where she could get paid more, since she wasn't getting paid enough here to support her family. She was the main coach for our class, and everyone's favorite. The coach who used to be our assistant coach became our main coach, and a new coach became the assistant. The new one was much more strict about not talking and doing the work. I loved it. The other girls hated it.

Oh, I forgot to mention that another reason I was annoyed with the class is because there were so many people in it. There were about 14 girls for 2 coaches, so we didn't get many turns.

So anyways, about a month or two after this big coach change happened, I showed up to practice as usual. To my surprise, there were only 3 girls there (including me). I thought maybe everyone else was on vacation or sick or something, though it would be a big coincidence. The assistant coach wasn't there, since they didn't need 2 coaches for 3 girls. The main coach told us that there we were the only ones left in the class. Whoa. Shocker. She said that all the other girls had dropped because they didn't like the new coach. We were really surprised and just nodded at the coach, but inside I was cheering. Yeah, I know that's kind of mean. But I was so happy because the 3 girls left were (surprise surprise!) the only quiet ones who actually worked.

Side story: So, a few months before my coach left, one of the girls dropped out. Remember the 2 girls my age who were best friends? Well the girl who dropped was one of those girls. The other girl who was still left was upset. She kind of became like me, working hard and not talking. At first, I didn't really talk to her at all. But we gradually became closer. I mean VERY gradually. When we had to do partner stretches, we partnered up one time. Eventually, we were partners with each other every time. We started sitting next to each other in stretching, but not really talking. Then we started talking a little bit, but only things like asking which school the other one went to and stuff like that. We started talking to each other more and more, and now we are really good friends.

So, fast forward a couple of years to where we are today. The assistant coach now coaches another class. She stopped coaching us shortly after the huge drop because we only needed one coach. The number of girls in class has now jumped back up to about 12. We now have a new assistant coach, who I like. The old coach is still our main coach. At first, I didn't like her at all, but now we are really close, and I can't even imagine her not being our coach. That girl is still my best friend in the class. The other girl who was in the class of three left about a year ago to switch to another class on a different day because of her schedule. The atmosphere of this class is sooo much better than it was 4 years ago. Instead of, well, cliques, I guess you could call them, everyone in the class is friends, no matter what age. I'm 13, and I'm friends with the 9 year olds. Of course, we tend to be closer to the girls who are more our age, but I think that's just natural. Most of the girls are hard workers. I still work really hard especially since I know now how far it will take me. So, even though I was devastated at first when my coach left, it turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened for the class.

Now that I am re-reading that, it is not totally about belonging. I guess you could say the part about becoming friends with the other girl is. Well, kind of the whole thing is, because now everyone in the class feels like they "belong." I don't know. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Edit: Whoa!!! That's really long! Sorry about that!