Finding The Perfect Balance

After a seventeen-year career in the sport of gymnastics, loving it, struggling through it, and being obsessed with it, this is the story of one gymnast's experiences, observations, and lessons learned. As her gymnastics career ended, and she was forced to deal with the loss of the sport she loved, she struggled to make sense of what she had learned along the way, what she had been through, and why. In writing about her experiences, all the lessons came into focus. This story reveals what she learned about gymnastics, what she learned about life because of gymnastics, and her journey to get there. The subjects included in this autobiographical account are winning and losing, dealing with favoritism, dieting, self-image, setting goals, dealing with fear, coping with injuries, how gymnastics impacts family, retiring, and many others. This is not the story of an Olympic hero. This is the personal reflections of an average gymnast, someone that did a challenging, competitive sport because she loved it. This story tells her reasons for doing the sport, what goals she set and which ones she reached and surpassed, and just how much satisfaction she was able to get from the sport without ever having to win gold medals or go to the Olympics.

Heather was born and raised in Citrus Heights, California, where she currently resides. Her gymnastics career began in kindergarten. She began competitive gymnastics at the age of nine and retired from the sport at twenty-one. Heather has competed in eleven national and international level competitions and earned a college gymnastics scholarship.