A Truly Madly Ordinary Victory

Published on by ortensia

The day of the gymnastics competition had finally arrived. Daughter number two is due to perform her routine today, in front of real judges. She is doing gymnastics for three years and for what I could observe learned nothing substantial, but she likes it. She never wants to skip a class. She goes in happy and comes out even happier so, “what the hell why not keep her in”,mainly considering her not existant inclination to the sport. In her defence, sure it didn’t help that she was born with her right foot slightly turned inside. The foot straightened nearly wholly thanks to physio,but continued to get in the way of the left one for a long time while running.

Being on a Saturday, the whole family had the privilege to go and watch. The traveling husband and daughter number one are not really impatient to attend but when I explained to them that this is the first year that they are splitting the club and so the show its only about her level and will last only one hour, while the previous years the competition was always held during the week and lasted between four and six hours (as all the levels were performing at the same time),they suddenly felt blessed to be there today.
If you are thinking how good of a mother I am to have gone through that the previous years, well..don’t! This is the first gymnastics competition I ever attended too because I have never been able to make myself sniff kids smelly sweaty feet for all those hours.

CG is secretively practising her routine for two weeks, since she received the note with the date and the exercises. She never knew to have nearly risked not to enter the competition because I missed the deadline and it took me half morning on the phone begging to have her enrolled unofficially.

Here we are all four in the car heading to the gym. Just after we have parked, I have been assaulted by one of those existential doubt that just popped into your mind like that, out of the blue. I looked at the travelling husband and said,”now I have the doubt it was tomorrow and not today. I haven’t double checked the note with the date”.He looked at me with a patronising expression that didn’t require any further comment or replay.
We approach the registration table, and while I am silently praying it is the right day, with an incredibly fake self-confident tone I say my child’s name. The girl behind the desk checked the list, three pages, she cant find her. I repeated CG name and surname, in case she got it wrong. She scrolls her list again. I can fell the travelling husband looking at me and thinking,”I knew it”.I avoid looking back at him or smarty pants daughter number one whose mood had already saw an improvement in the chance to go and skip all this. Trying to stay cool I explained that maybe she was not on the list because she was not enrolled online but added later by phone. At those words it was daughter number two set of eyes that I felt on me, her messy mother, but because she is a survivor and a “lulu pants”(as we call her in the house) she pulls my arm and says:”It is ok, I can do it another time”.My heart melted and all my hidden maternal and protective instinct raises:”oh no, don’t worry. I got this.”.There was no way she was not entering that bloody competition today! Whoever fault it was.
If this was not stressing enough, I also had to face the travelling husband who was still standing there beside me conflicted between to be annoyed or amused.
“I am sure it was today, what must have happened is that that list was printed from the online file and that is why she is not in there”, I say to him, and I nearly believed it myself too.

A queue had formed behind us, that it was a good thing because it attracted the attention of the organiser in charge who came to see what was the problem and with evident annoyance she brusquely told the poor desk girl to add CG name by pen at the bottom of the list where,I could see, there were other few names. With my extreme relief that the world is full of other parents messing with their kids’ gymnastics, I proudly escorted my family inside to take seats.

CG is one of the few in t-shirt and shorts because I always refused to buy her the club leotard that inevitably makes my mind go to “little miss sunshine”,as much as I loved Olive and her grandpa.Here she is ,with her long stick legs ,called out to perform her routine. She is focused, she goes by the book, and she is quick and precise like surgeons with their scalpel. Myself, the father and the sister look at each other in extreme disbelief at what we had just seen. The routine was not complicated but very well executed indeed.

Fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled, the competition is over, and it is time to give out the medal and call for the winners.CG arrives second in her level. For the first time in her whole nine years of life she is on a podium.The shock and the joy for the unexpected victory is overwhelming among her family s members.We are all incredulous but profoundly proud and so we also allowed ourselves a loud embarrassing cheer but, “hey”, this is not an everyday achievement for someone who just learned recently not to trip on herself.

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92 thoughts on “A Truly Madly Ordinary Victory”

  5. Bravo, CG! And bravo, Ortensia!
    ‘With my extreme relief that the world is full of other parents messing with their kids’ gymnastics, I proudly escorted my family inside to take seats’: This made me laugh!

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  7. What a hoot! You have a real comedic touch to your writing. Congratulations to the entire family for attending, you for prevailing, and your daughter for medaling. Well done all around.

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  20. Thank you for sharing this story! Congratulations and keep up the great work! I am looking forward to read more of your amazing posts! I hope if you have the time you will check out my site. I always aim to encourage and inspire others through the words I share! I hope you have an amazing week!!

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  22. Whoa! What a story of guts and glory. I enjoy your humor in such dire circumstance. I would have had a meltdown and needed a liter of ice cream to recover. You had the guts to force a positive outcome and that is why you are CEO of Lips for Literature. We can’t lose with you making sure we are all on the list for success. And how about that daughter!?! Pulling out a surprise win. That takes guts at 9 years old. Congrats to mom and daughter. My granddaughters take gymnastics and they put on their little suits which I call a Flippy-Flop suit. Then I ask them if they are going to Flippy-Flop school. Apparently, they used Flippy-flop suit and Flippy-flop school with the other kids and the instructor now has a language discipline problem in class and I’m not well received anymore. I’m going to have to make a donation or else the kids will likely not enjoy their greatest potential while Flippy-Flopping in their Flippy-Flop suits at Flippy-Flop school.

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      1. OMG! 😬 Butt sequins sounds like a really bad idea. No wonder you refuse to buy the team tights. Probably they got a discount at a pole dancers store due to overstocking and slow sales. Our little Flippy-Floppers wear onesies with only mind boggling print designs. The youngest told me it is gymnastics camoflage so the judges cant tell how bad you screwed up your routine. Smart kid. She is already learning how to get ahead in life.

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      2. She is a very clever girl😎indeed and now you see why I’m not keen on the club leotard….🤣where are those days of our boring but very decent pink or black ballet leotard?🤷🏻‍♀️

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      3. Ah, if only we could return to the boring days of mystery and adventure, Ballet leotards that instantly spoke of discipline and practice to perfection. Now we can Photoshop our lives in a multitude of bootie sequins and nothing else matters except to ensure the sequins don’t come off in the wash.

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      4. I desperately tried to have my girls do ballet as I did but none of them was the slightly interested😭😂but the whip worked as well as ballet on the discipline side,they are good girls🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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      5. Waaa haaa haaaa! Ballet or discipline by whip is just two forms of the same thing. I’m sure with your astute attention to details, you will be rewarded with daughters that excel in life.

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      6. Lol,I’m not sure about that but if they are happy I am happy whatever they do….well nearly,of course if they are happy going around murdering people I won’t be that happy tho🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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      7. More likely they will go around breaking young boy’s hearts with their inherited charismatic charm. You may need to keep them inside trapped in their smart phones. 😁

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      9. LoL, with two lovely daughters and two lovlier grand daughters, I have become a master at scaring away boys of all ages. If my evil eyes and growling inquisition doesn’t send them running, my shotgun loaded with Skittles rainbow flavors certainly does. 😈

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    1. Thank you dear and you know what more funny? Despite her clumsiness she is very confident and always been.The other who is the sporty strong one is the one I had to work for years to boost her self confide and still working in it.
      🤷🏻‍♀️have a great week end

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