HIGH POINT, N.C. — Sometimes when you're spending years working toward a goal, it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Ashley Knight is a gymnast at High Point Gymnastics and a senior at Southern Guilford.
She's going to continue gymnastics at the college level with a scholarship to North Carolina, but the road to Chapel Hill was not an easy one.
“It’s a lot. Doing the same thing every day, practicing 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day, going home taking a shower, doing homework, getting up, going to school, and then coming back here, it’s a lot," Knight said.
Gymnastics has been her life for over a decade, but for Knight, the dream has always been a college scholarship.
“We all knew that physically, she was probably the best kid that we had in the gym," Buddy Thorburn, who has coached Knight at High Point Gymnastics, expressed.
While her ability has always been there, she didn't see it within herself.
"As the levels got harder, that’s when I didn’t want to do it," Knight said.
Coach Buddy Thorburn stepped in to help her raise the bar.
"I sat down with her and her parents a year, year and a half ago and said Ashley’s ability is here and what she’s doing now is here, and if she can do this, this, and this, then she’s going to be one of the best gymnasts in the country," Thorburn said.
Knight took those words to heart.
"It was like a switch went on it," said Ashley.
About a year ago, at a meet, she vaulted a 9.9, a near-perfect score. It springboarded her to the top of recruiters' minds.
"All of a sudden, I started getting calls and emails and everybody was like, 'Can I come to the gym and see Ashley?'," said Thorburn. "It was the moment when she stepped out and said, "Wow, I am as good as you guys say I am'."
The light at the end of the tunnel started to shine through. Ashley earned a full ride to North Carolina.
"It’s mind-blowing," said Ashley. "I never would have thought I got a scholarship, especially from one of the top schools. It took a lot of work to get to where I'm at."
Mom and dad have been behind her every step of the way.
"To see her get a full scholarship and to get one at Carolina, we’re really excited for her," said Dwayne Knight, Ashley's dad.
Coach Thorburn said she could be a national champion on vault.
"She goes so much farther and higher than a lot of the other girls," said Thorburn.
For someone who once didn't believe in herself, who's now about to be a Tar Heel, finally believes in herself just as much as everyone else does.
"I feel l can be a national champion too," said Ashley.