Gymnastics... Or not?

Author's note: I cannot tell you if this is true or false directly. When I was little, I was like a little monkey and I liked climbing around on the furniture and the playground. My mom signed me up for gymnastics so I could climb around everywhere, tire myself out, and also become more athletic. Enough with this blabbering. Here is my story.

I was very flexible when I was younger. I could do push-ups, pull-ups, the splits, cartwheels, somersaults,  and everything that you did when you were in gymnastics. I could even do little flips on the trampolines there! I remember the thrill of swinging myself past the monkey bars, doing a somersault on the mat below it, then standing quickly to do a double cartwheel. It was amazing being so flexible. But now, I can't do anything like that to save my life. I always looked where the older girls were doing even more than that. They could swing around bars, do triple flips in the air, land on the mat, do a double somersault, and jump up right at the end of the mat. All in about 6 seconds. I sometimes wish that I could go back to that. There was only one thing at that gymnastics place that I absolutely was terrified of. I don't remember the name of it, but there was this huge pit with a bunch of foam kind of blocks in it. Whenever they threw me in that thing, I about had a panic attack and had to fight my way through the dreaded blocks to get to safety on the platform around the pit. I always thought of it as the death pit. There was this really tall wall next to the pit, which had these ropes that they made us climb. I felt like a spider about to drown in a hot stuffy pit filled with blocks. Everyone else thought it was fun for some strange reason. I once asked one of the people in my group what was under the pit, but her answer wasn't very assuring: "I had a friend here that went under the blocks, and she fell through the bottom and one of the instructors had to get her through a secret door in the back! She said that there were tons of spiders and snakes down there!" So after that, I kept trying to go down to see if there was a space below them. I got really close once, and I could feel a draft of air on my foot, but I forced myself to pull myself out of that pit. That was my gymnastics life, and I did that for about 2-3 years.

Middle School

Author's Note: I wrote this because I wanted to give a little encouragement to my brother. He is isn't enjoying 4th grade as much as me, but he is still worried about middle school. He saw my writing one time, so I told him that in middle school you get to write  essays, and he just about died. By writing this, it also gives me encouragement because I know that it is pretty much true.

Middle School wouldn’t be my first choice of “fun.” It isn’t hard, but it’s sure not easy. At the beginning of the year, I thought I might die because middle school was so scary. But after 2 days, I memorized my schedule and where I was supposed to go. Once I got into the hang of things, it was all good. But it didn’t go on that way. The subjects that we learned just got harder and harder, then I started getting behind on my work, but I caught up and now I have straight A’s! This is with the exception of Language Arts which is “Progress.” If you hear people saying things like “Middle School is like torture!” or “You will get a TON of homework,” don’t believe them. There is not a TON of work you have to do, but you need to take responsibility for what you do and your time, you will be a great student. But if you slack off and don’t do your homework, not pay attention in school, be mean to other people and the teachers, and don’t study for tests and quizzes, you won’t get the greatest grades. So don’t think that I’m saying that it doesn’t require work to do good in school. If you take the time to do your work, (that includes homework) and be a good student, you will glide through your first year of middle school easily.

Flying Cats

Author's note: Just so you know, this story is not true. I am pretty sure that when we were little, my cousin kicked the cat on accident, but she did not toss it. I repeat: This story is NOT true! I wrote this story because I didn't want to write about fantasy cats with wings, so this is what came up. Thank you for reading!

I have seen many strange things, like people being strange in many ways. I sometimes wonder what goes through the minds of the people who do those things. But when animals do weird things... It just flat-out creeps me out. Kangaroos attacking people for no reason, monkeys throwing their poo at people, or even dogs acting like cats! But cats doing weird things, that is entertaining! But the weirdest thing I have ever seen an animal do is fly. Fly like the wind across the room. It is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen! Cats are light animals, so they can be launched by pretty much anything. Including children. Children aren’t exactly mature enough to know not to toss cats. But when you’re mad at a cat for eating your last spoonful of ice cream, you can’t blame them. My cousin, when she was little, picked my grandparents’ cat up and threw it across the room! The reason for this is because it ate the last spoonful of ice cream in the bowl. My cousin then did not realize that there was more ice cream in the freezer, but still. Throwing a cat is not the answer to everything. Luckily, the cat was not injured: It landed on me.