I am a very lucky person.  I get to combine two of my favorite things, gymnastics and traveling, and live it everyday.  Up until this fall I had always done so from the safety of my hometown.  I’d get to explore, seek out new people and new places, new schools and new ways of thinking, and then go back to my comfortable place where these experiences would enhance my life in some magical way.  Eventually I realized that these small ventures out into the world could only make me happy to a certain extent; I knew that I could not maintain such complacency with a soul that is continually seeking out more.  More experiences.  More knowledge.  More relationships.  More adventures.  More of life.

When approached with the opportunity to coach at a new university in a new town outside of my beloved California, I experienced a moment of hesitation.  This newness was far more permanent than my weekend or weeklong jaunts for recruiting or camps.  This was a pack the U-Haul and get a new drivers license kind of change.  This is also me acting completely different than that excited explorer I described in the previous paragraph.  And that realization was all it took.  What was I waiting for?  Life is full of adventures, exploring and change.  I cannot sit around in my cozy corner of the world and expect it to come to me.  In honor of the upcoming election I pull a quote from Barack Obama, who said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  We are the change we seek.”  This was my moment!  My next big adventure.  And to balk at this chance was to ignore that inner voice screaming for the unknown.  An unknown that could possibly change my life.

So whether it is a new job, new school, or a new team, we are exposed to change at some point in time.  But it is in that change that we grow.  We get the opportunity to learn who we are, or, almost equally important, what we want out of life.  I miss my old team terribly – they are what shaped me into the coach I am now.  But this new group and new environment is giving me a chance to grow as a coach, expand my ways of thinking, and test that gut reaction to hesitate at the unknown.  Have I felt lost at times?  Sure.  Is it taking a while to feel like I have control?  Well, did I ever have it in the first place?!  Probably not.  So in the end, I accept that this change as part of what makes me lucky.  I may be in a new place but in the end I still get to do what I love!

Jamie Donkin

Assistant Coach Utah State University

I had the extreme pleasure of working with Jamie at Gym Momentum Camp as well as The National Gymnastics Training Camp in 2012. She was loved by the gymnasts and coaches alike. Her work ethic, attention to detail and creativity made her a favorite. I look forward to having her back 2013.

Tony

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