My childhood, a brief memory but a never ending story at the time. I was a little blonde kid with hair that curled down to my ears. I wore jorts with a faded yellow t-shirt that said U.S. Olympics. I wore my hat  backwards because I was fly and some white kicks and socks that still haunt me to this day because I had no heat. I wheeled the girls with my trike and everyone thought it was cool. I was a trend setter.

Most of the memories I have as a kid are with my dad.  He is a big part of my life then and now. I don't think I can live without him. My favorite memory with him is when he taught me how to do a pullup. I was shorter, smaller, and weaker than everyone else in my grade and when it came to testing in gym class I would always fall short. One day at the beginning of the year we did the pull-up test and I couldn't even do one.

I was pretty bummed because all the other kids could do at least five. So I went home that night and told my dad that I wanted to do a pull-up like the rest of the kids.

My dad said to me “I might just have a pull up bar downstairs.”  I was all on board so that night he put it up. It was an old silver bar that fit between the door of our pantry. Our pantry doubled as a closet smelling like old clothes and food. Every night, he would help me do pull-ups. I would grip the cold smooth bar as he held my legs up. We would do twenty pull-ups, play a game of foosball, then go to bed every night. I started to get the hang of it and I could do two or three by myself.

One day I asked him “let’s go do some pull-ups.”

So he said “I’ll be down in a second you start.”  So I did. I did ten all by myself and I came upstairs yelling.

“I did ten pull-ups, I did it all by myself, I didn’t drop I swear.” You could hear me from a mile away. My parents didn't believe me because I had only done two or three max.

So my dad said “let's go down and see it.” So we did and I did it, barely getting the last two. I was proud.

Later that night, Ben Baumgartner came over while his sister was at church school. That night I asked if he wanted to play foosball so we did as we ate crunchy popcorn. Then my dad saw what we were doing. He told us that we needed to do our twenty pull ups and then Baumer and him would play Ben and I. So we did our twenty pull-ups then we played foosball and they ended up beating us in a close game. Ben and I wanted to play again to try and beat them but they said.

“Only if you do twenty pull-ups.” We ended up playing five games doing one hundred pull-ups that night.  As a second grader, I was dead. I couldn't feel my arms the next day, they were throbbing and felt like bricks. We never did beat them at foosball. There were plenty of times where we hit the little white ball so hard we got to watch it fly through the air and roll away. I got pretty good at pull-ups and at the end of the year gym test I broke the school record and got seventeen pull-ups. I was so happy that I accomplished the goal I set with my dad.

I know that I couldn't of accomplished that goal without him. He is always there for me when im training, when I need advice or If I need help with something. Even If he isn't always with me. He has been a awesome coach and even better dad, always doing what's best for me. Doing these pullups got me stronger, but that's not what I like about this story it's the memories I have with my dad and that he taught me the dedication I need to strive. That's what makes me such a better athlete today. To be a good athlete you need dedication, that's exactly what I got from this experience.

That was a big story about my life that tells a lot about who I am, and the relationship I have with my dad. It is always fun looking back at these moments that really meant something to me. I hope that everyone can have a good memory or story with their parents like I have.