I have been a gymnast for 11 years, which means I have trained for approximately 11,440 hours of my life. This has opened so many doors for me, led to amazing experiences, and also made my life incredibly busy.
Being an elite athlete has allowed me to continue my academic and athletic career at the college level. I recently finished the gymnastics recruiting process and it was a very stressful time. I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to have so many official college visits and take each factor into consideration when making my final decision. Seeing each school and what opportunities they have to offer was a great experience. It has been a goal of mine for a long time to sign with a college and be on a D1 gymnastics team, but the time came way faster than I thought. It feels like just yesterday I was walking down the freshman halls and starting high school at BSM. Now I’m already in my senior year of high school and college is coming up. With that being said, I recently committed to the University of Michigan to continue my gymnastics career. Committing to Michigan has lifted tons of stress off my shoulders and I’m super excited to become a Wolverine.
I am very grateful for the experiences that I get from this sport but my schedule does not allow for much downtime. I’m in school and at the gym more than I’m at home. A typical day for me starts at Benilde-St. Margaret’s and ends at the gym. I often leave school early to get more practice time. Normally I’m in the gym from 2:30-6:30, and twice a week I stay till 8:00. This doesn’t allow for much time to study and get homework done so I try to be as efficient as I can when I’m in school. If I have any work time in class I always try to get my homework done then but if I don’t finish it I try to get it done after my practice.
Gymnastics has allowed me to travel to places I never thought I would get to go. Just a couple of months ago I got to go to Japan for a national team camp. I learned so much there and it was great to experience a different culture. A very memorable experience was seeing a school perform a traditional Japanese dance for us. This helped me understand how much time and effort they put into their activities and how excellence is an expectation.
Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success repeatedly refers to the “10,000 hour-rule,” saying that the key to achieving mastery in any skill is simply practicing for at least 10,000 hours. While I have definitely put my 10,000 hours in, I don’t feel I have quite mastered the sport yet. I still have lots more work to do and much more I want to accomplish. My goals are to win NCAA championships at Michigan, maintain a spot on the US national team, and compete for Team USA in the 2028 Olympics.