It all started as simply as anything would, in my living room.

When my parents learned I would do track and field, they showed me an interesting event called pole vault.

Because of how scary it looked, I thought they were crazy. I said, "There is no way I will ever do that."

"There is no way I will ever do that."

As it got closer to my first season of track, pole vault wasn't on my mind at all.

My coach, the same from cross country, wanted me to do distance.

The coach said: "Do you think you will want to do sprinting or distance?"

I said: "I'd much prefer to do sprinting

"Do you think you will want to do sprinting or distance?"

"I'd much prefer to do sprinting."

When Track rolled around, my first day, the sprinters were trying pole vault (just my luck).

We started on the ground with the pole. Just simply we would rock over on the pole.

It wasn't scary like I saw on TV, and quite frankly it was fun. I was enjoying it, but that was on the ground so surely it would be worse on the pit, right?

During my first week of this sport, I was moved to the pole vault mat. For every new vaulter it is scary jumping for the first time on the mat.

At this point, I would surely be scared. But after getting over the nerves it wasn't that different from the ground.

At the end of my first week, my coach grabbed the bar and I cleared 8'. It wasn't scary, but it was a challenge.

Sadly, with the good must come the bad.

Shortly after our meets started, I hit a mental block. I would "run through," a term meaning not to jump off the ground. Most vaulters experience this, but this was a big test to see if I would go anywhere.

It is hard to get stuck, and not be able to do anything. Feeling helpless tests whether someone will make it in the Pole vault.

WOW!!!!!!!

The struggles weed out those who give up. Those who don't want to struggle give up, but those who continue become even better from the struggles. It feels impossible to fix a problem like this. Many people don't go anywhere in this sport, because of the struggles that will displace anyone's career in pole vault.