Sports!: How being a multi-sport athlete my entire life has made me who I am today

Being an athlete is one of largest parts of my identity. Moving my body has always been something that I NEEDED to do. For as long as I can remember, I would spend as much time as I could outside playing. My sister and I would go to the park down the block from our house, swim in our pool, bike the Salt Creek Bike Trail, make up games with our neighbors, or even just dance in our bedroom like the weirdos we are. I was open to physical activity of almost any kind. Diversifying my activities and sports has only helped to keep my passion for movement alive.

Through playing with my siblings, cousins, and friends, we discovered that I was (and still am) extremely competitive, so my parents put me in sports from the age of 3. I started with gymnastics, but that didn’t go very well according to my mom (which is hilarious now, because I love gymnastics the most). Soccer came next at age 4; this also did not go well! I would sit in the field during game play and rip out chunks of grass. At age 6 I found the first sport I loved: swimming! Being in the water has always made me so happy! I was on the Otters Swim team from ages 7-11. While I was on the swim team, I also did softball for a few seasons, but wound up quitting when I was 10. In 7th grade I joined track which went on to become my main sport over the next 6 years. Long Jump, Triple Jump, and Hurdles were my specialty. There was a brief moment in time where I was a cheerleader and I am still searching for the photographic evidence. I will upload it when I find it. Once I got to high school, I became extremely dedicated to being an athlete.

Being a high school athlete was an incredible experience. I have bonds with my teammates that will last a lifetime even if I don’t talk to them now. Teamwork is ingrained in my blood because of these bonds. I was taught how to balance sports, school work, and a social life from a young age which has definitely translated over into my adulthood. I was focused and disciplined because I had goals to meet, most of which were in my sports. Joining track was already a given, but I was surprised to find myself in the gymnastics gym October of my freshman year. Gymnastics is not typically a sport that you start when you are 14 and have already gone through puberty, but that is exactly what I did. On my first visit to open gym I learned how to do a back handspring (flip flop) and the coach asked me to join the team. Because I had no fear factor I progressed fairly quickly on certain events. My upper body strength was never good back then, so I dropped bars and focused on floor, beam, and vault. I was never going to be an Olympian, but I have never had as much fun in my life as I have had doing gymnastics. My junior year I added in diving and Ultimate Frisbee. Diving wasn’t my favorite, but I went on to play Ultimate Frisbee in college and those are some of the best memories of my entire life.

Going off to college was a time to explore who I wanted to be. For the first six weeks or so of my freshman year, I was in the Illinois State University Gamma Phi Circus….. Yes, you read that right, CIRCUS. It was SO MUCH FUN!! I learned how to do the tight rope, German bike, acrobatics, the Russian swing, and juggling. At a certain point I had to choose between Ultimate Frisbee and the circus because I did not have enough time to do both, and I quit the circus to focus on ultimate Frisbee! This was probably one of the best decisions in my whole life. The women that were on my team are like my sisters. We had so much fun and actually did pretty damn well for a few years there! Continuing on my athletic experience into college was invaluable. I am not sure who I am without sports.

When I was 19 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia because I had been experiencing extreme depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Yoga had been a part of my life since I was 12, I started to practice more consistently to help fight the pain I was experiencing. While yoga is not a sport, it is a practice that I have used throughout my life to help with stress relief, sleep issues, and physical pain. I decided that I wanted to become a yoga teacher after I graduated college to help others with chronic pain and in August of 2013 that is exactly what I did. Ever since then I have been learning more and more about yoga to help increase my knowledge of my mind-body-spirit connection. I now teach yoga to kids in 10 schools around the Denver Suburbs and I could not be happier to be introducing them to the practice at such a young age. In November of 2014, I started my first job as a gymnastics coach and I that has been my other job since. My passion for sports was reignited and I am able to pass that passion onto my students.

Being an athlete has literally made me the person I am today and I would not change a thing about my career path. People may look down on me and think that I am “just” a gymnastics coach or I “only” teach yoga, implying that I am less than them because of it. There is NOTHING wrong with my choice to be a full time yoga teacher and gymnastics coach, but there is something wrong with your decision to judge me over my life choices. I love what I do and I make enough money to survive and do the things I love. Can you say that you truly love what you do everyday? If you can’t answer that positively, than please don’t look down on me for what I do. Everyday I get to spark a love of movement in children and hopefully inspire a lifelong relationship with taking care of their bodies. All of the different sports I have done throughout my life have taught me strength, determination, discipline, passion, and a drive to become to the best possible version of myself. As a coach, I have learned patience, compassion, and an ability to instill confidence in my athletes. Movement is key to a healthy life, and I have found the best way to keep moving is by finding something you truly love to do. What is your passion?