Is it possible to have a favorite mistake? I’m sure it is possible to have one because I sure do have one. My favorite mistake actually goes a while back. It happened on January 17, 2016. Basically what was happening, I was at gymnastics practice. Competition season was over but we were getting ready for next season. That day was a weekend practice. No team was practicing in the gym that weekend besides our team. The other gymnasts that were there at the gym were gymnasts getting tested to go to the next level.

         My teammates and I were done with practicing our last event and our coach told us to go to the pit floor. The pit floor is the same exact gymnastics floor but with a pit full of foam in one side to practice new skills. We went over there and there were these PreTeam girls that were soon going to be on our team if they passed testing. As we all walked to the pit floor, our coach starts to walk towards us and as she does she says,

         “You girls can do whatever in the pit.” and then she added,

         “And you guys can work on any skills.” But didn’t say we shouldn’t hurt ourselves or do anything stupid. So I took her words a little too far and wanted to “show off” to the girls that were standing beside our team. And let me tell you, that did not go well.

I was next in line and I have already thought of a skill that I could already do and would look cool. For our level, I just did a simple front tuck (which is a front flip but front tuck is the correct term). There was a springboard at the end, which makes you have more power while doing skills. I’m pretty sure I did a really good front tuck but not until I landed in the pit.

When I landed, I heard and felt my ankle pop. It didn’t hurt so much at first. I got out of the pit and sat on the floor. I thought about why my ankle popped but I didn’t think I sprained or my ankle. In gymnastics, we’re not allowed to sit unless you’re told to. I got up immediate on my good foot and I tried to walk. After I took my first step, I immediately fell right back down on the ground. There was a sharp pain after taking a step with my right foot and it was hard to put pressure on it. I got back up and pretended like I was fine.

Luckily, it was the end of practice and we could leave after doing one last exercise. I walked myself to the place to do the exercise and I was limping the whole entire time. After I finished my exercise, one of my teammates asked me if I was okay and I told her what happened. She let me hop on her back and her take me to the room with our stuff in it. I grabbed my stuff and limped my way out of the gym and into my car.

         About five minutes into the car ride back home, I finally asked my dad,

         “Can we go to the hospital please?”

         “Why?” My dad asks curiously.

         “I hurt my ankle and it’s hard to walk now.” I said. He continued to ask multiple unnecessary questions but we went back home to pick up my mom and then left the house to go to the hospital. We arrived and it took about three hours to get my x-ray and my results. But finally after those three hours, they shocked me a little. The doctors thought I might have a tissue growing into my bone but they finally told me that I just sprained my ankle. They gave me a walking boot and told me I will be off of gymnastics and anything active for a month but little did you know...I was too in love with gymnastics and I went back after two weeks, even though it hurt a little bit.

There were a lot of things I’ve learned from this mistake. The number one thing is to never show off your skills or how much better you are compared to others. Ever since then, I stopped trying to think everything was a competition between any sport or anybody in general. The second thing is to listen to what your doctor says when they say to lay off of a sport for a specific amount of time. I took two weeks off when I was supposed to take off a whole month. Gymnastics gives a lot of pressure to your knees and ankles so being injured and landing skills was not fun and it hurt like hell. So definitely not doing any of those ever again.