A lesson in courage and perseverance

I knew that I couldn’t fool you. All of you who guessed where I was over the weekend were right.    We were in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I wasn’t there to see Mitt at the Nevada Caucus. (But I wish I could have seen him. I surely hope he will be our next president.)

I wasn’t there to gamble. (I never gamble… my money is too important to me to donate it to casinos.)

I was there to see our 15 year old Johnny compete in the Black Jack National Gymnastics Championships

Our darling grandson taught me a lesson in courage and perseverance.

This was the first competition we have been able to attend since our accident last March. I got home from the Utah hospital the day before  Nationals last May. I was not able to see Johnny make the USA National team for level 9.  I was very disappointed I missed that.

This is the first year that Johnny is competing in the level 10 division. He is competing against older boys who have been in level 10 for a year or two. I was excited  to attend this meet but I was a bit nervous for Johnny.

His first event was the pommel horse. He usually nails it as seen in this picture from last year’s competition…. but not this year.

He fell off….. doing a stunt he has done a 1000 times …. he got back up and then… he fell off again.  He couldn’t believe it! My heart ached for him. What a discouraging way to start this competition!

I was afraid that this devastating failure on his first event would taint his performance in the other 5 events…. But I was wrong.

He went on to compete his best in all 5 of the other events.

His smile came back after doing a killer job on the vault…. We didn’t know it then but it turned out he got the highest score of the day on vault and won 1st place.

He ended up placing in all 5 events after falling off the pommel horse. He got 1st on vault….1st on high bar…and 3rd on floor, parallel bars and rings. (Don’t those 2 gold and 3 bronze medals around his neck look great!  He worked hard to earn them.)

He missed getting 2nd on floor by only 1/10th of a point.

He lost 2 points when he fell off of the pommel horse. That is a huge loss of points in a competition where the difference between 1st and 3rd place is often determined by fractions of a point…. But ….His high marks on the other events earned him 3rd place overall …and… helped his team come in 1st place overall.

After the competition he learned that if he had not fallen off of the pommel horse he would have come in 1st place overall….

and…. if he had only fallen off 1 time he would have come in 2nd place overall.

He was disappointed that he blew it didn’t do well on the pommel horse… but…he and we were thrilled he did so well after that. I could not be prouder of him.  I think it is amazing that he could keep his head in the game and do so well after having a horrible devastating start.

I hope that I can follow his good example. When things go wrong for me…. when I get discouraged…. when I fall off of my “pommel horse” I hope that I will remember Johnny’s  courage, perseverance and determination.

I hope that I will remember  the lesson that my sweet grandson taught me this weekend….. to keep trying ….to do my best and not give up even when it looks like the odds are against me.

There is a lot of pressure being on the level 9 USA National Gymnastic team.  Now that he has been training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, the Olympic coaches know him and are watching him and so are all the other boys. He is expected to do well…. but now he is completing against older boys and harder competition.

His goal is to make the level 10 USA National team this year. The odds are against him since this is his first year to compete at level 10. Before this competition I didn’t think he had much of a chance of making it…… but after watching him Saturday I say……

Go Johnny go! 

Keep working hard and believing you can do it.

I’m beginning to think your dream of being on the Brazilian Olympic Gymnastics' Team is not out of reach.

Go for it Johnny….

With your talent, hard work, courage and determination the sky is the limit.

Are there “pommel horse” disappointments in your life? I think we all have them from time to time.  The next time you feel like giving up I hope that you will think of Johnny’s story and keep trying to do your best. .. who knows… you could end up on the winner’s platform too. I am hoping that I will remember his good example.

Thank you Johnny.

Hugs, Grammy