Young and uncoordinated

When I was four or five, I wanted to take ballet.  The ballet teacher at our local YMCA would not accept me into her class.  She said that I was not coordinated enough to be a ballerina, and should instead take gymnastics.  I really was not at all interested in gymnastics.  I was a girly-girl with long hair, and lots of dresses.  I wanted to wear tutus and prance across the stage en pointe.  Gymnastics held my attention for maybe one round of classes that probably lasted all of six weeks.
When I started grade school, I quickly discovered that I was no good at the sports we had to play in gym class.  I was short, awkward, and almost always one of the last picked for teams.  While I was a perfectly average-sized kid (aside from my height) and this did not actually have anything to do with my weight, I was keenly aware of the fact that I wasn't a particularly athletic girl.  Organised sports simply were not my thing, and it would be many years before I found something physical that I felt confident in doing.