Susie started gymnastics when she was five years old. She was more advanced than the other kids in her class. She caught on quickly to the new drills, and she accomplished her new skills fairly easily. She was a natural at the sport, which in the future, is going to make other girls very jealous of her. 

As the years went on, she became an excellent gymnast. She made the team, but she was the youngest. She was very excited. She couldn't wait to make new friends. But, all of the older girls, Grace, Abby, and Macie, started to be mean, which made her feel insecure about herself. " She's so young and not good enough for team." Grace said. Hearing this from the other girls made Susie want to quit. 

"She's so young and not good enough for team." 

Instead of becoming friends with the girls on the team, she started to keep to herself, not talk to anyone, and started to dread going to practice.  This was not like her. She loved gymnastics and always wanted to be there. It was her happy place. "Mom, the girls on team are mean to me." "I don't want to do it anymore." said Susie. "They are just jealous that they weren't at your level at your age Susie."

"Mom, the girls on the team are mean to me. I don't want to do it anymore."

Susie started to focus on herself and her routines. There was a competition this weekend and she had to block out all of the negative words being said about her. She went to practice and didn't worry about anyone or what they were saying about her. "Don;t worry about them, just stay focused" said Susie. She was just focusing on the weekend ahead. 

"Don't worry about them, just stay focused."

It was the day of the competition. The girls were separating themselves from Susie leaving her all alone. But Susie was not worried. She knew that she would do very well in the competition because she always put in the work, even when she did not feel like it. "She isn't ready to compete." said Macie as Susie was approaching her first event of the competition.

She isn't ready to compete.

Susie ended up winning 1st place and beating all of the other girls in the competition, even all of the girls on her team. Susie knew that she was prepared but she was not prepared to win. This made Susie feel so good about herself. She started to forget all about the other girls talking bad about her. The other girls were embarrassed of how poorly they treated Susie. They were too worried about her age and did not notice how talented she was.