How I Became an Athlete

I’ve never thought of myself as athletic. As a child my preference was always for sports like gymnastics, ice skating and ballet. These were solitary activities that required grace and rhythm rather than a ball. They were perfect for me, as I loved music, wasn’t at all socially adept, and had a better sense of movement than hand-eye coordination. Sports that didn’t require me to interact with anyone else or throw anything were optimal.

Unfortunately, my father wanted me to play team sports like basketball or soccer because he thought I ought to learn teamwork, and he got his way. But these were games for which I had no aptitude and even less interest. What’s more, my teammates teased me mercilessly for my lack of ability, and I had no social skills with which to form clever retorts. The result of all this was that I was miserable at sports and loathe to exercise as a youth. Thankfully, I was blessed with a metabolism that kept my weight in line with what our society considers attractive - and so I was spared many of the struggles that adolescent girls experience as their bodies mature.

My desire to exercise changed radically when I got to college. Without my father deciding the sports I would play, I had the latitude to do what I had always preferred. For years, running became my favorite form of exercise. I was running 10 miles a day and preparing to try out for Pomona’s track team - a team sport at last - when I was in a car accident. The back injury I sustained made long distance running impossible.

That’s when I discovered rock climbing. My fiancé got me into it, and at first I was terrified. The height, the ropes and the possibility of dying weighed on me. But gradually, as my natural skill for the sport became evident, I found myself thinking of little else. It is two years later and I still can say that I climb at least twice a week. And it was with climbing in mind that I signed up for a membership at 24 Hour Fitness last week.

In the past, gym memberships meant little more to me expensive obligations. To have a membership used to mean that I must either attend the gym or feel terribly guilty and fat every month when I paid the bill for something I never used. Now I see this membership as a way to cross-train for climbing. Access to the treadmills and PreCors is nice, but I really joined for the yoga and kickboxing classes - which I hope will increase my speed, stamina, flexibility and finesse on the wall.

The downside to the gym is that you can’t take two steps without running into a poster or pamphlet about weight loss. And while I’m not anywhere near fat, I’m also not as thin as the images on these pamphlets seem to suggest I should be. This threatens to take my focus off of being a strong athlete and put it right back on my “shortcomings.” In adulthood, lack of hand-eye coordination and social graces has been replaced by a lack of will to look like society says I should.

But neither of these things are - or ever were - shortcomings. They simply predispose me to a certain kind of sport. And isn’t that what being an individual, and an athlete, is all about?