Cried this morning watching Tate. This is her very last time on the floor. She did it big- won gold on the
floor and second all around gold and silver in all events. Covid changed all of our lives, Tate’s the most. She practiced and did online workouts every day for 3 months. These aren’t the kind of skills you can keep up from home.
She lost her favorite coach, her best friends and the sport she was made for. She sat and thought long and hard when the world began to open back up. Not a single girl from her group went back. Gymnast don’t take off, they can’t. One missed week of practice on bars took at least a month to overcome and work back to.
The thought of starting from scratch with out Coach Tami and all of the young women from her team was just not possible.
I know this is small in the grand scheme of things. We are so fortunate, but that doesn’t take away the fact that she was SO GOOD.
I laugh when I say I want to be Tate when I grow up, but I am very serious. She’s the hardest worker I know. She’s braver than any person I’ve ever met. I can’t imagine leaping blindly backwards on a balance beam and trusting my own abilities to know I’ll land.
The amount of sheer determination to walk into a tryout to a new sport you don’t know and do your best in spite of being scared of looking stupid is huge. She’s made it on the B or C team for volleyball and basketball. Walked on and picked up a tennis racket for the first time the day before tryouts and came in 4th out of 27 girls. She is just badass. It’s has to be humbling to be one of the top in the nation in your sport. To not only make it to regionals but medal at the top competition in your sport, then have it all pulled out from under you.
Tate shows up. She showed up 6 days a week for hours long practices. She trained every day, homework in the car, two hour daily commute and still pulled a 4.0 in school. Worked through injuries and smiled the whole time. I was so worried for her when the world shut down. I worried this would crush her to lose the sport that she lived for. I’ve learned never to doubt her. The same dedication she had for gymnastics is still hers. She has just put it into learning new sports, building a new network of friends, trying every single sport she can.
I’ll say this over and over : Tate means bringer of joy. I was scared to be pregnant after losing a baby before her. I had no idea the little 8lb baby we brought home would grow into such a determined, powerful, silly, smart, witty young lady. I thought she would bring us joy, I didn’t know she would also bring joy to herself in any situation. You ARE joy sweet Tater and I love you more than you know.
