When Did You Fall in Hoop-Love?

It took me two years after I started hooping to really feel it.

Pre-hoop I was always focused on things that made the most sense. I remember being 10 or 11 and thrilled to save any birthday money that was given to me. I remember thinking, “well! I don’t want to be poor when I am sixty!” Excessive foresight is an acute problem I have. 

Typical perfectionist. I was on a path and I was going to reach the finish. I didn’t think about my motivations, I just knew I had to keep moving forward. It was a time that saw me running full speed down a path that gave me comfort and little else, whereas now I am slowly stone stepping in an unfamiliar place, yet feeling better than ever. How on earth did I go from that scared-to-death of everything girl to who I am now? 

Well, one, I grew up. A change was going to happen in some way with time and I won’t leave out that confounding factor - but it was more than that.

When I first started hooping, I felt like I think most other folks do at the beginning. Hooping was fun, kind of different and a good distraction. Yes, those first few weeks I was addicted - practicing in my cramped dorm non stop and staining all the walls will bright yellow hoop tape. But, I still thought of it as a hobby. I was still studying like crazy. Working on my thesis. Going through all the college motions hoping it would result in a path for me. So, then I graduated and hooped all summer and started wondering what was next.

I moved. I left all my hoops behind.


Three months passed. I found a job and an apartment, made a few friends and was living the day to day. One night, I was house sitting and there was a cheap children’s hoop in the basement. I hadn’t hooped since leaving all mine behind for the move. While I was standing there, having picked up the hoop, I realized that I was having more fun then I had had in the past 6 months. There was something so freeing in just moving my body around, making this hoop move how I wanted, doing something just for me.

I went online, ordered and waited for my hoop.

After that, I started making hoops. Then teaching. And it never got old. There is always something more to learn and know and see and do. Somewhere in the two years from getting my hoop and where I am now, I lost that scared girl, obsessed with knowing what is coming at all times, and found myself relating to all the tales of hoop love.


Now, I take chances - I am happy to make my own path and unafraid of bumps and puddles along the way. Each new move or trick with hooping is an accomplishment. It encourages me. “Well, I learned [insert trick] so I can do this.” It’s not only with big things, like focusing on hooping full time, but smaller experiences that I would never have done before, like signing up for classes and events, planning trips, and travelling.

Hooping was the first thing in my life that was pure silliness, yet I still pursued it. It showed me how rewarding those kind of ventures can be and has made me more satisfied with, and open to, life. 

So no, I didn’t fall in love with the hoop, or a hoop - but instead with everything new that hooping has opened to me. It’s just a silly little toy, and no one is more surprised than I am that it has turned into so much more.