state!!

... noah had some amazing moments at his conference meet yesterday... he landed a perfect front handspring right off the bat... landed a nice front tuck vault... high score, and executed the best pommel horse routine ive ever seen him perform... another great score from the judges. it was the meet of his life so far... he finished up strong with his highest score ever on high bar and a solid ring routine.... his parallel bar routine was the only routine he tied a teammate for 1st.. the other events he took a marginal first against his teammates. however, the competition for this age group is fierce due to the saturation of athletes in this particular age group, so qualifying for state as a first year level 5 is 'rare and extremely difficult to do, but not impossible' to put it in coach michael's words. so a few months age noah and i were alone going to practice and he confesses... 'mom, i have two major goals this year...i want to pass the gate test and make it to state finals....' carefully, i explain, thinking gate: no big deal, he'll pass with flying colors. state: hmmmm... 'noah you were brilliant this year with how far you've come as a gymnast, let's first acknowledge that. you work harder than anyone i know to go after what you want. if you somehow don't quite make state this year, you'll have it 100% next year. so don't be disappointed if you need a couple of extra months to perfect this level, o.k.?' there i thought, supportive, leaving a little room so he doesn't get too disappointed when he doesn't make state this year. do i know my child? well i'd like to think i do.... but i nearly fell off my chair when the announcer called him forward at the awards ceremony yesterday... announcing he had qualified for state. seriously. rare, extremely difficult, but not impossible, total noah.