Lauren Johnson
That's why her words have special meaning when the Cartersville native rates her new position as a teacher and gymnastics coach there.
"When the job came open here to teach Spanish and coach gymnastics, it was a perfect fit," according to Johnson, who received her master's degree in May at the University of Georgia.
Johnson graduated from Darlington School in 2006 but has a history of gymnastics competition in Bartow County. "I didn't go to Cartersville High, but I went to the Twisters gym and trained there for several years."
She won a regional championship on the vault with the Twisters and competed in the all-around (vault, bars, beam and floor). Her senior year she competed in the Junior Olympics National Championships in Oklahoma City.
She's always taken the sport seriously. "I always had a passion for it," Johnson said. "I wanted to pursue that in college, so I went to UGA and was part of their gymnastics team and part of three national championship teams. That was a great experience."
She specialized on the vault at UGA but also did beam and floor.
Johnson said she likes how difficult gymnastics is and the satisfaction it provides her. "I've always loved learning new skills and the challenge of gymnastics. I love putting skills together and using different combinations in ways to help me compete."
She knew early, too, that it was her calling. "I set the goal as a little kid that I wanted to do gymnastics in college -- I wanted to go to Georgia, specifically, and do gymnastics. That actually happened, which was very exciting."
But even though she has worked hard, there are no shortcuts.
"It was very difficult," the coach said. "The training was rigorous, competing every weekend, traveling every other weekend while trying to balance 12 to 15 hours of classes. I was in the honors program, so they were hard classes. I had to learn discipline, time management, that kind of thing. But it's rewarding to train that hard day in and day out, then at the end of the year, win a championship."
She obtained her Masters of Arts in Teaching, Foreign Language Education last month and a Bachelor of Arts at UGA in 2010.
There are several perks in getting a job close to home. "I like to be close to family, so going far away was never a goal of mine," she said.
Johnson said she also will be working with some familiar individuals, too.
"Some of the girls at the Twisters gym were 8, 9 and 10 years old when I graduated from high school are going to be on my team at the school," she said. "That's good because I already do have connections with some of those girls. I also still know some of the coaches over at the Twisters gym, which is where the team trains. It's good to know all those people over there, too."
Johnson said the affiliation with Twisters is good for the team. "Gymnastic equipment is very expensive so the Twisters have been great."
She added the training at Twisters is a big plus because the athletes are ready to compete more quickly for their team.
"Gymnastics is such a specialty sport that if you don't have any experience before you start at the high school level you won't do a whole lot of competing until you learn some things first."
The gymnastics season runs from January to April.
She said her goal for the team is to continue improving their individual performances and show progress as a team.
"We usually make it to the qualifier meets but haven't been consistently making it to the state meet," she said. "I think that would be our next goal, to qualify for the state meet as a team. Individuals would be a good first step, but to get the team there eventually would be our goal."