Gymnastics is not only a good thing to live by, but it is important to understand how it does help you in life.

I feel like if you compare the commentary, what's covered with female athletics, as with men. On any given day, if a guy competes, you're going to critique his technique and his performance, training. With a girl, you don't do the same thing. You might mention a little bit of that, but you're also going to get what she was wearing, how she performed, what she looked like. I feel like it should be the same.

I missed being considered an athlete and having that competitive drive, and missed having something to work for every day. I'd taken two and a half years away from the sport and was out of shape. I wanted to get back to where I was in 2008.

I had surgery to repair the ACL in February 2010 and was back in the gym by June, but rushed things too quickly and ended up re-tearing my MCL in September.

Something my mom taught me when I was little is that everything happens for a reason. Retiring was scary and it was tough to give up gymnastics, but so many great opportunities have come from it that I never expected. And those wouldn't have happened had I not accepted my injury as a way to try something new.

It's been strange and weird watching the other girls at the U.S. Olympic trials just because I was training to be out there myself.

Something my mom taught me when I was little is that everything happens for a reason.