"You Should be a Gymnast!"

I cannot count how many times someone said this to me growing up. And the answer is, "Yeah, I should have been."

I know I've gone on before how I had scoliosis and subsequently had to have my spine fused together so gymnastics would have been halted around age 12 and who knows if I ever could have done well without a flexible back. But gosh, wouldn't NBC have loved that sob story if I'd made ti go an Olympic level?

And yeah, I'm talking about the Olympic level because I would have made the perfect gymnast! I had all of the right variables:

• I'm naturally short, my full adult height is just about 4'9
• I didn't get my period until I was 16! And that was without being an intense athlete
• I was flexible and taught myself some basic skills
• I live in a state with several prominent elite gyms 
• My build is muscular, think Shawn, but thinner
• I was 18 at the time of the London Olympics so I had an ok birthday for that quad

So yeah, instead of Gabby on that podium in 2012, it should have been me because, hypothetically, I am the prefect gymnast.