About me

When I was a young girl, I liked to spend my summers in the country. I loved drawing, and the only sport I liked doing was swimming.

When I was in the first grade, some people came to school to offer rhythmic gymnastics training. I went there. There are two things I have remembered from then: the first one, that the teacher scolded us for being too fat and told us we’d better not eat in the evening. This was real pain, as I really liked eating. My second memory is of a Christmas party. We were to perform and we had to be specially dressed for the occasion. Mom had quickly realized that it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to be dressed as a fairy, princess or daisy like all other girls were. I was a rooster and tried hard to do my part of the choreography.

In the third grade, I took dancing lessons. To complete the training course, there was a competition. Mom had sewn a fantastic dress for me and bought a pair of shoes that, to match my other clothes, we sprayed in automotive paint. I couldn’t wait the competition day to come. I went there to find that my partner was another girl that not only wasn’t a good dancer but also wore a dirty, spotted white dress and rosy trainers. I was really upset. We dropped out in the first round.

I had other activities, too, but for no more than one or two years. I even went to a swimming course but visited the swimming pool only once: the water was dirty and too hot for me.

So no wonder that, when I wanted to go climbing, Mom didn’t pay much attention. “OK, go”, was all she said. But she didn’t suspect that it would become my way of life.