Whispering Winds Blog

I was inspired and I learned a lot last Saturday – actually 2 Saturdays ago. It was a great day!

Prior to that Saturday, I had never been to a gymnastics meet. I guess that doesn’t make me a very good great aunt, since my 17-year-old great niece Mollie has participated in gymnastics since the age of 6. That Saturday Mim and I decided to take the opportunity to watch Mollie compete at the State Gymnastics Meet being held in Madison at the Alliant Center.

I knew Mollie always liked to run and jump and turn summersaults. I remember watching her demonstrate her skills when she was still a toddler. On Saturday, we were able to see how those skills have developed.

I said I learned a lot on Saturday. I learned that gymnasts perform and compete in four different events – bars, beam, floor, and vault. Without going into details, I concluded that bars and floor are the most fun to watch, the most graceful. Beam and vault are the scariest to watch. I admit, I was scared for everyone competing in every event. I can’t imagine having my body do any of the things they all do with such strength and grace.

Watching these incredible gymnasts perform brought back humble memories for me of tumbling in gym class when I was in grade school and high school. One of the things we were required to do was run, jump, and turn a summersault over someone lying on the mat. Then over 2 people on the mat. Then 3. Then 4. Believe it or not, I managed to be successful – until it was 5 people on the mat. My head landed on the fifth person, and then my body didn’t follow through quite right, and I ended up with a very stiff neck. As I recall, I even missed a couple days of school nursing my neck, although I never saw a doctor about it. Fortunately, by the time I got back to gym class, we were finished with that exercise, and the class had moved on to rope climbing – which I simply refused to do. I wasn’t going to climb up a rope to touch the ceiling of the gym. What if I fell and broke my neck!? I got my only D in all my years in the Cambridge School System for my non-performance in gym class that semester.

My great niece Mollie is very different from me. I’m sure she could have tumbled over 5 bodies by the time she was 3. I think she must have been born with springs instead of bones, considering how she can flip her body around. But besides being born with springs, she has worked really hard training her body to do what she and her coach want it to do. Her daily routine for years has been to go to her gym in Madison to work out for a couple hours after school – every single day.

The result of her dedication was becoming Number 1 in the state of Wisconsin for gymnastics in 2016. She placed first in all 4 events, which also meant she was first overall. We were all so proud of her.

What made me the proudest was the way Mollie and the other gymnasts all treated each other. During the Awards Ceremony at the end of the competition, Mollie’s name was was the first one called because she had placed placed first in the first event. She climbed up to the top spot on the platform and was given her medal. When the 2nd place winner was called, as she climbed up to the number 2 spot on the platform, Mollie reached down to give her a big hug. The same for the 3rd place winner. Everyone seemed genuinely pleased with each others’ accomplishments. This behavior was repeated for each award for each event. Similarly during the warm-ups and competition, all the gymnasts hugged and cheered each other on. Kindness was on display everywhere throughout the meet.

Although Mollie is still a junior in high school, this will be her last year to compete in the state gymnastics championship. She has received a full athletic scholarship to the University of Kentucky. She will speed through her senior year of high school to graduate in December, and start college and gymnastics at Kentucky in January 2017.

But she’s not quite finished with competition for this year yet. Her next meet will be in St. Louis for Regionals, and depending on her status there, she may go to Nationals at Fort Worth. (She’s competed at Nationals the last two years.)

I’m truly excited for Mollie. And I’m proud of her gymnastic skills and accomplishments. I was amazed to watch her on Saturday. But most of all, I’m thankful that she’s already learned so much about kindness.

KINDNESS is my special word for this year, and I’m delighted to see it popping up all over. Last week I blogged about kindness in end-of-life care. This week I’m blogging about kindness in gymnastics, and specifically as demonstrated by my great niece Mollie. Who knows where I’ll see another amazing demonstration of kindness next… I think I chose a great word to focus on this year!

P.S. I’ve attached a youtube video below that shows Mollie in action.