On August 21st, two years later (almost to the day), Tarah left Oklahoma for Kelly Hill’s Gymnastics facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Kelly was the head coach for the Olympic Team at the time, and Tarah figured if anyone could help her get to the National Championships, it would be her. She took some college courses at Montgomery College, and completed additional courses by correspondence from the University of Oklahoma to supplement her credit intake. (A task much harder than she originally expected, not realizing how much work on top of her already very tight schedule five 300 & 400 level Courses--with no teacher--would bring)!  But she persevered and finished them all in time…just barely.  Her photo appeared in the Washington Post and she generated some extra income for herself by coaching and working at the gym.  An unfortunate stroke of bad timing occurred though when Kelly, taking a post-Olympic break from coaching, was unwilling to train Tarah and the other hopefuls at her gym at this time (and the assistant coach’s goals for Tarah did not match her own). So, when the school semester wrapped, (just 2 months after Tarah and her mom had moved into their cute, two-story, townhouse style apartment there), she flew back to Arizona to begin training with Olympian Kristin Maloney’s coach, Jack Carter. He and his wife had just arrived a month earlier in Tarah’s home town of Mesa (coincidentally only about three blocks from the original house where she grew up)!  A gym compatible for training Tarah at the level she needed had finally arrived! ...And as for Tarah, she could finally go home.         

    With Carter’s Gymnastics Academy, Tarah qualified easily to the U.S. Classics—held this year in Pomona, California.  It is her 4th year both at this competition and at the highest level of gymnastics—“Senior International Elite.”  But events would go differently this time, as she finally, FINALLY! qualified to the National Championships of the U.S.A!  (Hip Hip Hooray!)

         It wasn’t easy, of course, but Tarah, seeing that her time with gymnastics was coming to an end shortly, was determined not to let this goal slip through her fingers unaccomplished.  She had spent way too much time and energy, and sacrificed far too much not to stick w/ it and prepare one last year at her fullest effort and ability.  Jack took her back to basics and essentially rebuilt Tarah’s form, technique, & skills from the ground up. If she was going to make it—and furthermore be competitive at the National Championships—she was going to have to do something different, and that something was one-on-one, seven hours a day, six days a week training, plus cleaner body lines, tighter form, more difficult skills, muscle building and toning, drilling performance consistency, etc., etc…and all while maintaining her motivated, positive attitude.  She prepared diligently for the U.S. Classics under Jack’s expertise, and it paid off. She made it through, then pushed yet harder, continuing with even more intense training for the National Championships. This was the competition she’d waited for her whole gymnastics career.  The best of the best would be there, and she was now finally going to be one of them. 

         Once in Philadelphia, August 8th-11th, the event came and she was ready! She became one of the Top Twenty Gymnasts in the Country, and was ranked 18th now out of an entire Nation (a pool of over 200,000 total gymnasts) earning her a spot on the National Team. And that wasn’t all. She also captured the Bronze Medal on the Balance Beam (her favorite event) adding this USAG Beam Championship to her gymnastics titles.  She had finally completed life goal #2 (the 1st being her 3 National Dance Championships) and she could rest in the closure and sense of accomplishment of having a long-pursued chapter of her life conquered at last.  Tarah is and will always be so thankful to the vast many people who have helped her along the road to a successful completion of this journey. Now, she turns her focus to next on her “to do” list. But first, she will have to travel again.

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