Dreaming of Gold (Nathan Adrian)

Dreaming of Gold part 1

I waved at my family, standing there, all emotional. I smiled one last time, it was a bit of a nervous smile, but I hoped to comfort them with it. I smiled till I  couldn’t see them anymore.

I’m Nilsa, I’m a 16 year old Danish girl from a little town called Vejen.

I’m a professional gymnast. In Denmark the sport isn’t as popular and the training conditions are not quite good.

So here I was, ready to catch my plane to the United states of America, where there is the opportunity to train well.

I finished high school last month thanks to some home schooling. That made everything a whole lot easier. I got a sports scholarship at the Californian university in Berkeley. I was so excited but at the same time so incredibly scared.  It isn’t the collage that scares me, my mother is half British so my English is pretty good. It is the whole host family and a strange coach that worries me the most.

I was trying to calm myself down when I was sitting in the airport hall.

“It’s going to be okay” I whispered to myself smiling a little.

They announced that the passengers from the flight to California could board.

I got up and made my way to gate 6, from now on there is no turning back.

During the flight of almost 7 hours I wasn’t been able to eat anything. I was way to nervous. Not a good characteristic for a gymnast you’d think !? When I was at the gym even in a big competition all the stress and pressure just seems to fade away, it was my thing, the handstands, pirouettes and all the other stuff. It is part of me.

Finally arriving at the local airport in Oakland I grabbed my bag and heading to Arrivals.

I recognized  my host family the moment I walked by customs. I had seen them on a few pictures they send me.

They were very happy to see me and loaded me with hugs and kisses.

“you must be so tired from the long flight” said Nicole, the mother of the family. I nodded.

Her son and her husband both grabbed one of my bags carrying them to the car.  The 9 year old boy had some troubles with my large back but he refused to let me carry it.

They got me settled in my room and stayed a while to talk, they were very nice people. Jeremy was the cutest little boy I even met.

after supper I met up with my knew coach Mark. He explained his methods to me, I was amazingly motivated to start training the next morning.

I got into bed early because it had been a very long day.