'Life's a Journey' series, Week 3 - Elementary Schoolwork

This week we were supposed to share some of our early schoolwork.  I didn’t really save very much of my actual schoolwork other than a few reports which I can’t really scan and show here.  The biggest focus of my elementary years was reading (voraciously), and gymnastics.  I loved gymnastics and my school won the city wide gymnastics meet every year when I was in grade school.  I qualified in both fifth and sixth grades to compete on the balance beam and in the jump rope event.  I loved the balance beam so much my dad made me a wooden balance beam in our back yard.  We had the best coach, Coach G, at Marshall Elementary School in Tulsa.  I still have fond memories of practices and meets.  One day an unsupervised practice landed me in the ER.  Without the spotter I was supposed to have I was practicing back handsprings in the gym one afternoon.  I landed on my head and jammed my neck.  I could not straighten my head up but I was so embarrassed and worried about disobeying the rules that I quietly sat down and didn’t say anything, thinking I could fool Coach.  He saw my crooked head right away and asked me what I had done.  Once he heard I was sent to the hospital for observation.  I was fine but after that I had never did back handsprings again which pretty much ended my gymnastics career.

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