When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a gymnast. I don't honestly remember voicing this request. Mom had enrolled us in dance classes, both tap and ballet. And when we made the move from College Station to Houston, my interest waned when the dance teacher at this new studio couldn't hold a candle to Miss Margaret. (Yes, I remember her name!)

So years go by, many an Olympics watched rooting for U-S-A with the likes of Kim Zmeskal and Dominique Dawes and my focus around art became all consuming.

Fast forward to 2005 and a visit to Toronto. I learnt that a friend of mine attended a circus school for fun and some good exercise...her apparatus of choice, trapeze. So on a whim and with room available for one more person, I joined in, wearing blue jeans of all things, and executed a catch. What a rush. Many a trips after that experience resulted in me finding a trapeze school to swing into...pun intended. It wasn't gymnastics, but still in the realm and easier on the knees.

Fast forward again to 2015. I lived in Virginia at the time and one of my colleagues said she attended a parkour studio that also contained aerial silks. Whhhaaattt? It was a bit of a dream come true, feeding that inner child. I've always been one to gravitate toward physical activities that were hard and challenging, and maybe a wee bit painful. There's something to be said for leaving everything you've got on the floor, or in the air, making small little progressions you never thought were possible.  I like being able to climb, twist my body into weird positions, defy gravity at times, using gravity to perform drops that would make any mother squirm! Yes, it's scary, but that's the thrill. It's what makes it magical!

But perhaps the biggest thing, despite the aches and pains which do take longer to heal as I age, it keeps me young. There was a tag written on the wall at the parkour studio which read -

"We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing."

This brings us to present day. I've been attending classes at Dragonfly Aerial Company since 2018, recently adding hoop classes to the repertoire of my weekly aerial silk adventure. It's a new kind of hard that brings a new level of pain. But it's fun and I was able to perform a penny drop last week which made me feel like my childhood gymnast dreams could've been a reality.