Karla's Chronicles

  "Barren Spirits" You searched for decades To find the missing part Of your life In every nook  And in every cranny You searched until Your eyes could no longer  Look You wanted so badly For something to appear To get rid of this barren spirit That seems to sit dormant There is nothing around me to make  It move The darkness has surrounded me And has refused to relent I have prayed for relief But my prayers have remained unanswered No matter how hard I plead God does not seem to want me to succeed The barren soul feeling just continue to bleed  Within me

 Dear Simone,  I feel like I should begin this letter to you by introducing myself. My name is Karla Culbertson. I am a 36-year-old woman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I suppose my interest in gymnastics is influenced by my disability. I am wheelchair dependent due to Quadraplegic Cerebral Palsy. As you can probably guess, gymnastics is even more fascinating to me when compared to the average fan because I cannot even walk and to be able to see you defy gravity time and time again is just that much more incredible to me.  My gymnastics fandom was first inspired by the Magnificent Seven in 1996. Once I watched all seven of those women capture the Gold Medal, I was hooked. I remember buying Dominique Moceanu's autobiography and studying the skills index in the back of the book until I was cross-eyed. A couple of months prior to the 1996 team winning gold, I found out that LSU had a gymnastics team. I have been a loyal follower and fan of the LSU ladies for a good 26 years or...