Elementary School Gym Klutz

An embarrassing moment in a grade school gym class leads a shy young student to help form a winning team.

Elementary school was not a particular favourite time of my life especially from grades four to six. I was not a popular kid in school which contributed more to my shyness and low self esteem at the time. I always felt self conscience what the other kids were thinking of me and whether they liked me or not. There were nice kids but there were also many bullies both boys and girls. Gym class was especially difficult for me because more social interaction took place with other kids including the ones that I did not fair well with. One particular physical education class was in grade six. The teacher decided she would hold the gym class indoors that day in the school's gymnasium. I recall this long bar set up starting from four to sixes inches off the floor. All students were supposed to run and hurdle the bar without knocking it over. That seemed easy enough to me as I evaluated the bar set up. It wasn't too high. So, I'm standing in line waiting my turn as the kids ahead took their run and easily made the jump. Well, my turn come but as I ran I had this terrible self doubt overtake me and I became very nervous. I lost my focus and jumped a little too late. The bar come crashing down loudly with what seemed to echo in my head for eternity. I was embarrassed and felt like a class act gym klutz. I thought for sure the whole class would laugh at me because I didn't make the jump. Instead all the kids just stared at me but they didn't laugh. That still didn't make me feel any better because it made it more obvious that I had bungled up something so simple. I tried to hide my humiliation and humbly went to the back of the line to attempt the second jump. The teacher then raised the bar higher and the whole gym class had to take another run over the bar. I wasn't sure if I could make it due to the bar being even higher. I just stood there and hoped for the best and then my turn came. The second time I made the hurdle without messing up. The kids then all started loudly cheering me on. I thought to myself that it was better then being picked on but at the same time I still felt embarrassed because I had still managed to get myself noticed. I felt like a spectacle. The teacher raised the bar higher the third time. It didn't bother me too much as many of the kids ahead of me did not make the jump. My turn came and I didn't make it over the bar the third time but I didn't feel so bad because I wasn't the only one that missed in the third round. This gym mishap did actually in the long run help me build my self confidence especially when it came to physical education classes. I then later down the road started to get a little more involved with some school sports activities. This particular grade school at the time had each class member assigned to a sports team name divided into four different names of wildcats. Students were not required to play after school sports games but each school student belonged to a specified team. The principal of the school would frequently announce over the school's speaker system which teams won in what particular games. I had noticed that the team I was a part of always seem to be losing a lot of the games. Something inside me told me I could change that. I actually began to play the sports games offered after school such as volleyball, floor hockey and soccer. Well, I was so happy that my team name starting winning a lot of the games when I contributed some of my time playing. I sat at my desk feeling proud knowing that I had helped score a lot of wins for my team. I don't really know to this day if anyone else had noticed but it didn't matter much to me. I just knew inside of myself that I had helped turn a losing team into a winning team.