From just 4 years old, sitting with the family in the living room, my cousins and I flipping around the living room while our parents are chilling on the couch. I decided to do a handstand, against the wall, not knowing if I could do it or not, I did a handstand. I was so excited because I never knew I could do that. I would watch gymnastics on the tv all the time and watching videos of olympic gymnasts competing on YouTube and I just knew I wanted to be just like them. A few weeks later, mom got me into gymnastics classes and I fell in love with the sport. Seeing all the older girls flying high in the air, flipping through the air, swinging on the bars, and doing skills on the balance beam. I started off with an evaluation to see how much skills I had already knew how to do and know. Surprisingly, I was better than I expected. They had a meeting with my mom and I and had said they were going to place me in level 3, which is the competitive team, and I was so ecstatic about it! It was meet season and we practiced none stop getting ready for competitions. It was Friday night open gym, and I decided to go and practice some extra before competition and I was going to do a roundoff backhandspring back tuck on tumble track when I over rotated and landed on my back onto the mat rolling off and hitting my elbow on the hard ground, I didn't know what to do, I went to my mom out in the waiting room and I told her I didn't feel good and she told me, ¨Kiarah you broke your elbow.¨ I didn't know what to think, we rushed to the hospital where they got x rays and put me in a cast for 9 weeks. I eventually got better and better, advancing in levels. Coming my last couple years of gymnastics we traveled to so many states for competitions, December 15,2017, we flew to the Bahamas for a gymnastics competition and it was the greatest experience of my life. Placing 3rd in the Bahamas with gymnasts from Brazil, Dominican Republic, and multiple states. Around sophomore year of high school, I decided to quit because it was becoming a huge time consuming activity where I never had a social life outside of gymnastics, not being able to hang with my friends on the weekends or going to high school games.

At 7, my cousin and I also decided to pursue soccer and joined a club team. We first started with their little league soccer camp during the summer and continued with club for awhile. We traveled to different states for tournaments and games. Beginning of freshman year I decided to drop club soccer and join the Girls High School Soccer team and played high school soccer until sophomore year. 

Sophomore year, during soccer, I also was on the Girls Track and Field team. Unfortunately, April 20,2021, I got into a car accident with my friends, I was a passenger and we were driving in snow and rain and hydroplaned off the road hitting a tree and totaling my friends truck. No one was badly injured except me, having a sprained ankle and cuts and bruises. I was out of soccer and track for the rest of the season, which was really disappointing because I was looking forward to that season. 

In 2018, On my last gymnastics competition, I was at our state competition getting ready to compete, hoping to place on the podium, but not knowing the outcome. We started competing and we were coming up to beam. It was my best event and I was so nervous. I finished my routine looking at the scoreboard waiting to see my score pop up, and it flashes, a 9.65, that´s my highest score on beam ever! It came to award time and it was my age group up. Sitting there nervously waiting to see where I placed, calling girls up one by one getting up to the last 3 places. They call the third place winner and I was so nervous I didn't think I placed. They called second place…. And it still wasn´t me, I was so anxious and so nervous, there's so many girls that could get first place and I was scared to see who it was. They go to say first place winner…. Kiarah Kaupas! I jumped up so excited and walked up to the podium and get my medal and trophy. I placed first in state, out of 400 girls in age division I got first. 

The greatest sports moment I've ever watched was the St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup game in 2019. That was an amazing experience, my family and I were able to go to the Stanley Cup Parade and we were early enough to get front row spots. We were so close, being able to see the players coming through and seeing them up close in person, it was an experience that I will never forget. We even got to touch the stanley cup as they brought it around cheering and chanting!

My greatest sports hero would have to be Gabby Douglas. From the moment I got into gymnastics and knew who she was, I started binge watching all of her gymnastic videos and I knew I wanted to be just like her. She is my inspiration to why I wanted to do gymnastics and become the best I became, all because of her, I got through all my struggles through gymnastics and her inspiration.  Gabby Douglas has inspired and impacted my life extremendesouly. When I was going through my elbow injury, not being able to flip and do gymnastics and watching all my teammates compete at meets, and only being able to condition, I went through a big mental breakdown and had thoughts of quit gymnastics because I didn´t know if my elbow injury would cause me to have to give up what I loved to do. But I remembered Gabby Douglas suffered a major knee injury the day before leaving for the world championships in October 2015, but they didn't know the seriousness of it until after the competition. She was on crutches for two months after worlds but surprisingly didn't require surgery. And remembering that, reminded me that she went through a whole a competition with an injured knee and that's an example of dedication and strength, because if that was me I don´t think I could get through a whole competition with a injured knee, or even with an injured elbow. 

I have so many bucket list items related to sports, and the list could probably go on. If I had to chose my top 5 bucket list items, they would have to be, attend a Super Bowl game, no particular team, but just to attend a Super Bowl would be a dream come true in itself, its like a one in a lifetime opportunity. My second item would be to meet Ryan O´Reilly, because he is my favorite blues player, not to mention, in my opinion the best blues player on the team currently. My third item would be to attend the olympics, specifically Summer olympics because I love summer sports, and it would be an amazing experience to see in person. My fourth item would be wanting to go skydiving, because its been a bucket list item for forever. My final item would be to go scuba diving in clear blue waters and see all the pretty coral reefs and marine life in the ocean and see in ocean deep down in the water. 

From my experience in being apart of many sports, I think society has sports to form stronger society bonds and boosting people's self esteem. I think sports have always had a huge monumental impact on our culture and values in the United States. Sports has its own world and spotlight on society. Sports plays a significant role in American society. The tremendous popularity but most importantly they transmit values like justice, fair play, and as well as teamwork. Being apart of a team of many sports have united me with friendships, while also making me more confident in myself. It's helped me feel better about myself, and my self esteem has hugely improved. In the United States, sports has powered to project a vision of what it means to be an American citizen. They offers limitless opportunities to engage in sports, either as a participant or as a spectator. Sports on top of it all conveys power to athletes too, power to break social barriers and protest injustice.