Meet One: New Orleans

The first meet of the season has come and gone, and so has a wonderful mini vacation to New Orleans. This meet went well for me and for all of my teammates, especially considering it was the first meet of the season. Everyone placed on at least one event, and everyone placed in all-around.

This was one of my best meets of both of my seasons in level nine. I scored a 9.125 on vault, an 8.8 on bars, an 8.6 on beam, and an 8.9 on floor! I was very pleased with how all of my routines went, and I had a lot of fun in the process!

Like all of my teammates, we killed it during awards! I placed third on vault, which is pretty good for me. I didn’t expect to place on anything else but floor, but I had a grandiose surprise! I won every other event, including all-around! I took home four gold medals and one bronze!

These are the medals I won!

A picture of me on the first place podium for all-around!

At this meet, the level sevens and the level nines were in the same session, which means that I got to be competing with my teammate who is a level seven. We are both the only one in our level, so we had a great time together! To pass the time in between events and keep our nerves under control, we had a massage train, we did yoga, and we watched videos on our coach’s iPad mini. I got to know her a lot better, and I know we will always be good friends.

We had a lot of time to explore New Orleans before and after the meet, and in my opinion, this was even more fun than winning my age group! My teammates and I had loads of fun away from the gym, too. We walked through the French Quarter, went to the St. Louis Cathedral, went to the Café du Monde, and had two, count TWO, team dinners!

These are the beignets that we ate at the Café Du Monde.

The level eights ended their competition late, and everyone was starving! We found a restaurant, the Sun Ray Grill, but on the way there there were lots of opportunities for pictures! We walked for about 30 feet, dropped our bags, and took a picture. We walked 30 feet, dropped our bags, and took another picture! We got so many cool pictures on the streets of New Orleans, I can’t post all of them.

My team with a jester statue in the convention center.
Just one of many pictures we took!

I stayed a day longer than my teammates. That day, my parents and I went back to the French Quarter, where I found an awesome store called Papier Plume. They sell a variety of fountain pens, glass pens, quills, inks, and other accessories for fine writing. I found it all very fascinating, and my parents decided to buy me a quill and glass pen. I have written a few things with them, and they are SO COOL!

My new quill and glass pen.

We also went to Mardi Gras World, where floats and props used in the Mardi Gras parades are stored. It was incredible how big some of them were, and I learned a lot about Mardi Gras.

I had lots of fun in New Orleans, and I can’t wait to make more great memories in New York next week!