For several years, I did gymnastics. I should probably say that I breathed, ate and slept gymnastics. It was pretty much a way of life in our home for several years. Anna started it two years before I did, then I joined and Aino did as well. My mom did some work for the club and the Finnish gymnastics federation, so really I am not being dramatic when I say that gymnastics ruled our life.
I wish I could say that these years of practicing 20 hours a week made a better, stronger person and that I learned valuable lessons in life. In reality, I did not like gymnastics very much. I was pretty good at it. All of us three girls at some point were part of the Finnish National Team, but I just never loved the sport. Fortunately, when I was doing a handstand on the high bar, I fell down and broke my left ankle's ligament. I had to have a surgery. We moved to U.S and I decided to change sports from gymnastics to track. This sounds simple, but it was quite the ordeal to leave the gymnastics world behind and start something new. And I loved track. It was my sport, but that's whole another story.
Every once in a while, I have dreams about gymnastics. The other night was one of them. I am at one of the competitions(as my current self, though I wasn't pregnant in a dream), I have some sparkly leotard one and I am supposed to start my beam exercise and I know that there is no way I can do anything on that high, skinny apparatus. In my dreams, I never end up doing the exercise, I just always wait for my turn in terror and think "this will be so bad. I will embarrass myself and probably kill myself if I try to do anything".
I hate these dreams, because they make me feel so restless. I wonder if they come when I am nervous about something else and the gymnastics represents the fears or insecurities that I have. I also have lots of dreams when I am being chased by bad people. I call these my "24 dreams" after the TV show. Again, the bad people never catch me, but I'm on the run, hiding and scared. Because of my wild imagination, I have to limit the TV shows and movies I watch; otherwise, I have terrible nightmares.
Do you have recurrent dreams?
Also I should say that I don't think gymnastics is a bad sport. For me, it was way too demanding emotionally and I just never could enjoy it.
7 comments:
I had a recurring dream that was so scary to me as a child, the finally stopped just before I started high school. They were always very strange but seemed so real. I had the "someone is chasing me, but never catches me" dreams all throughout my pregnancy with Noah- I didn't like those at all. I've been hearing a lot of pregnant women lately complain about nightmares so maybe that's common in pregnancy, I don't know. Too bad we can't control our dreams... at least I can't.
I have that dream, but it's usually about running a race I haven't prepared for, or having a college final I haven't studied for. It makes me feel so anxious. I bet it's worse because you're pregnant - when I was pregnant dreams were always more vivid.
I didn't know about your rock star gymnast past, by the way!
I have several recurring dreams and have to limit my TV watching for the same reasons. However, what I really want to say is...YOU WERE PART OF THE FINNISH NATIONAL TEAM!?!?! Do you have any idea how much I would have killed to be that good of a gymnast? I'm super impressed! :)
Yes, I have recurring dreams that totally make me feel the same way. One is that I realize I have totally blown off a violin lesson and I realize how much trouble I will be in by my teacher (and its not even my most recent teacher in my dream its one that I had back in high school). Another is that someone is babysitting cameron and they forget to feed him all day. Hah!
Hi Eevi,
Iam not sure whether you remember me or not. I used to do gymnastics in Tampereen Voimistelijat as well. I have had a lot of gymnastic dreams as well...some of them are nice and some of them are just pure nightmares. Now, with the years they have become less- I only dreamed about it once a month or so but they sure are not the funniest dreams... A lot of times I am in competition as well, and scared as heck. I have actually talked with some of the others who did gymnastics with us, and all of them have had nightmares as well...So I guess it´s not that uncommon:)And I even liked gymnastics:)Anyhow, take care and hopefully you get to sleep better:)
Heini, of course I remember you:) Thanks for leaving a comment. You are in Sweden nowadays, right?
I'm in the same boat. I used to do synchronized swimming (never made National team though) and I still have nightmares about competing without knowing the routine.
And even though I swear I don't watch scary/dramatic shows I get those being chased nightmares too. What gives?
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