March 21, 2006
As most of my teammates probably know, one of my favorite things to do outside the gym is to watch movies, but more importantly quote lines from movies. When I was thinking about the seniors, Sarah, Bunny, and Jodie, and their last home meet, one movie quote kept coming to my mind, "I hate goodbyes." Although this quote may not be from a deeply meaningful or award winning film, it definitely represents the emotions we all experienced Friday night.
Senior meet is the team's way of saying thank you to the seniors for all of their hard work, dedication, and perseverance in their collegiate gymnastics career. Our team, the visiting team, our coaches and hundreds of fans witnessed how much these girls have impacted our lives along with the Missouri gymnastics program and got the chance to say goodbye.
Kira worked hard all week putting together a video of past pictures and performances of each one of the seniors. When the last routine was finished, we all gathered together to watch the video. Then, each one of the seniors was recognized individually for their gymnastic and academic accomplishments along with words and phrases we said are our favorite things about them. The seniors were also presented with flowers and a book that each person on the team contributed a page to. It included words of encouragement and memories from the previous years. Many tears were shed, as we said goodbye to three amazing teammates and friends. We recalled all the fun, memorable, and sometimes chaotic, times we have experienced.
Although our home season is over, we still have two, hopefully three, competitions left this year to watch our seniors break more records and make more memories. In a few weeks there will be three less people in the gym to add words of encouragement and laughter but these girls will always be a part of the Missouri gymnastics team. Once a Tiger, always a Tiger. We'll miss you guys but until the season comes to a complete end...GO TIGERS!!!
And don't forget to watch the Tigers fight for the Big 12 Championships on T.V. Friday March 31 at 12 pm on FSN!