You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
I started gymnastics when I was ten years old. My gym was located in a public ground some distance from my home. It was run by two brothers, both bachelors who volunteered their time and money toward the sport. Neither were gymnasts, far from it, it was a hobby and they decided to see where it would take them. The equipment and instruments were purchased and built as per specifications and the safety equipment consisted of mattresses. We had close to 25 mattresses and they used to be stacked in the equipment room. A rectangular room with super high ceilings, windows along the longer sides, panes usually broken or chipped. Equipment like the balance beams, vaulting horse, pommel horse, parallel bars, roman rings, stackable horse, all stacked just so, to maximise utility of space.
The windows left no display space and the only space was about 15 ft above the ground. As students we only ever looked that high was when we were standing up and looking ahead on the balance beam. There high on the wall, hung an image of a ballerina striking a pose on her tippy toes, with the words, ‘If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it. While we were made to look at that image to understand what stretch your toes really meant, I think this was one of the first ‘positive mindset’ quote I’ve ever seen. There was just the one framed poster high up on that wall in the gym, so, all of us had to look at it all the time. We were even questioned on our observation skills based on how that quote was phrased.
The positive mindset, is something that’s all the rage today, but it’s something we’ve all been told and taught by our parents. And it’s something my psychology professor talked to us about during our lectures. ‘The mind does not know better, if you tell yourself you can’t, then you won’t. But if you tell yourself you can, then you will.’ So when the question of the first line of my autobiography was mentioned, I thought about it, real hard. If you know me, then you know that folks often mentioned, ‘don’t be like her’, and while I may not have understood the depth of meaning those words conjured, the emotional wave that hit me, every time someone thought it, may have influenced my behaviour. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking to explain my attitude. But, look at the positive is all I’ve ever done. Every experience, every failure, has taught me something, and proved to me that things will always change, ‘Nothing lasts forever’. So, when I start, I will look at the very beginning, and this is how it will go:
‘What an ugly baby? She looks like a monkey!’, whispered the nurse in the delivery room. “Early! She’s early by 6 weeks. No hair. No nails. But she’s alive!”, thought mother, unaware that the ‘early baby’, could feel every vibration in the room. Mother was worried. How would she survive? The doctor reassured her, ‘If she makes it past year 13, nothing will stop her’, there were no guarantees no promises, yet, that one statement held hope and that’s all mother needed. And that’s all that tiny baby needed. Just a sliver, in the unfamiliar. And that’s all that tiny baby looked for, every time she was told ‘No, impossible’. Every hiccup caused unceasing worry, Measles when she turned 13 was the last straw. Would she make it? Father sat by her, worried yet hoping for a miracle. Was this how it would end? Or was this a new beginning? …
Just a little more 