Round-off back-handspring back layout.

Words that sound like a foreign language to others but strike a sense of comfort and familiarity within your heart. You spent all your waking hours in the gym and have battle scars galore. You have boxes of old leotards that you wore when you got your first nine on an event. You've saved your first pair of grips even though they are three sizes too small.

Gymnastics made you feel whole and complete, pushing you to step out of your comfort zone and propel yourself to new heights. Your countless hours in the gym tested your limits and stretched both your body and mind to dimensions you may have only dreamed imaginable, once upon a time.

Gymnasts are risk takers who defy the walls of gravity and push their bodies to perform tricks that take both physical and mental stamina. You flipped through the air, not to impress those around you but to become a better version of yourself than you were the day before. You flipped gracefully through the air and tumbled wildly down the tumble track to release pent up emotions and release the stress of the real world.

The gym was your sanctuary and each new skill helped your body blossom into an even more beautiful and delicate work of art. No matter how hard your school or home life became, the gym remained a constant in your life and you knew you could always turn to the balance beam or high bar to help put your mind at ease and reduce feelings of discomfort or unease.

You sacrificed movie days with friends and sleepovers on the weekends for gymnastics practice and competitions but you didn't care. Each time you perfected a new skill or conquered a fear on your least favorite event, it sparked a fire within you and left you hungry for more. Every time you fell, you stood back up ready to fix your mistakes and make your routines even sharper.

You'll never forget the time you performed a flawless routine on the uneven bars or when you tore your ACL and needed to rehab your injury for a year. You may have had to leave the gym due to an injury or other commitments but you've learned lessons that you will cherish for a lifetime. You've learned that while perfection may seem to exist within the gym, your imperfections don't define who you are as an individual. Your strengths and your weaknesses join together to make you into the perfectly imperfect person and gymnast you are.

You've learned that constructive criticism is not a bad thing, rather it is something which can help you become even stronger as a result. You've learned that with pain comes success which enables growth to take place. You've discovered that you are capable of conquering any obstacle set before you and have developed a fiercely optimistic attitude when overcoming barriers.

While you cling onto some memories, others will become more distant. You most likely won't remember the choreography to your level 5 floor routine. You won't remember how many bottles of hairspray you've gone through on competition days. You might not remember all the tricks you've done in each of your hundreds of leotards. There are other things however that you'll never forget. You'll remember the best compliment you received from your strictest coach. You'll remember how it felt to break into your first pair of grips. You'll remember your first time competing with your teammates and will treasure memories you cherished at your last. You'll relive experiences you had at nationals and remember the good times you shared with your teammates who started out as friends but have become family.

You may have left the gym but the sport of gymnastics has made you who you are and the lessons you've learned will travel with you throughout your life. All of the hardship you've had to endure and good times that have rolled around have transformed you into the person and gymnast you are today.

Never lose sight of the lessons you've learned and understand that missing the gym is okay even though it might make you feel sad. Even though you may have left the gymnasium, your experiences and memories will linger with you forever.

You will always be a gymnast at heart and the sport you love will be with you for life. You are strong-willed and wonderful, brilliant and determined.

When it comes down to it you might have left the gym but gymnastics will always be a part of who you are and that, might I add, is truly remarkable.