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"Just hear e of tears My mother would no doubt sniff them in the air and be on me like a blood hound within seconds Tears shoeakness, and a Rossi was never weak—at least according to her

Dad didn't respond Instead, he stared right through me

Blowing out a loud, aggravated breath, I stood up and peered through the largein his office, which overlooked the expansive, lush lawn in our back yard Over to the right, the late afternoon sun reflected off the pool Our hoious Pal except a great one-of-a-kind gy my dream

Turning back to my dad, I took in the flare of his nostrils and stiff jaw He had becooose bumps broke out on my skin I knew this side of him, and it wasn't pretty This was a side nobody dared to test

I had pushed too far

"Go," he said "Now" His voice quiet and cal me to return to his work

I fled his office and retreated tothe door just as the tears started to fall

Gy to me—it wasthat allowed me to be me To express myself creatively in the way I chose, not how so, sleeping, and flipping for as long as I could re a new skill The way I defied gravity—asp from the audience—made the sacrifice worth every bit of pain andcould take that feeling away

It was the one place I could be free from the restraints my family's name had on me

My nayyht coach

I had competed in all ten levels required to qualify for the title of elite in different meets around the country last year and won numerous awards It was only a matter of time before I'd hold the coveted rank I trained day in and day out for this My days consisted of four-hour training sessions in the gym, a tutor to homeschool me, and a private chef to prepare my calculated caloric meals

As I fell onto my bed, devastation hit me hard The rejection crushedripped away

Like oal was the Olympics

If I graphed the training along with e, I could possibly c

o the key word While twenty was still considered youthful by norh, it wasn't unheard of to coe One of my favorites, Svetlana Khorkina, competed until she enty-five years old and in three Oly when she was seventeen Oksana Chusovitina, co at seventeen So oal wasn't co I was good, but I wanted to be great And the only way to be great was to train with the best