Nicole Pruchnik is counting down the days until she receives her driver's license.  But not, like most teenagers, because it will enable her the freedom to escape and explore the open road.  But for Rochester-native Pruchnik, the license will offer her freedom of another sort: the freedom to drive herself every day to Wareham to practice her gymnastics.

"I'll be able to be here pretty much all the time!" she said. "I can't wait. I made sure to get my permit on my birthday and scheduled my test for my half-birthday."

But being a level-10 gymnast requires that dedication, and it is a sacrifice "Coley" is clearly happy to make.

"Gymnastics is my life," she said repeatedly in between answering questions about how she masters the myriad equipment that, to the unfamiliar, seems designed only to cause injury.

Pruchnik started gymnastics at age four because she said that she didn't like dance.  By age six, she was competing.  Ironically, she has progressed so far in gymnastics, she is now required to take dance - it helps her improve her stability and control her center-of-gravity whilst hurtling herself across the balance beam.

About four years ago, she "raised the ceiling" in her commitment  (and the commitment of her gym, Kaleidoscope of Dance and Gymnastics,) to the sport.

She couldn't do "giants" on the uneven bars (swinging in a full-length position around the bar and stopping in a handstand at the zenith of the arc) without hitting the ceiling.  So they removed it.

"That's when she made the change from a good gymnast to a really great gymnast who wants to make it to the next level," said Coach Erin Bosanquet. "She decided she wanted to really do it, and it has to come from the kid to do that."

More recently, the gym removed another section of the ceiling over where she practices her floor routine - double back flips were the catalyst this time.

"I wouldn't say they did it for her," Bosanquet, said (although Nicole's dad, a good woodworker, did a lot of the work).  "But she's benefited the most."

And it's helped her find success.  She returned from the Eastern Championships this May with gold medals in vault and balance beam, which helped her boost her all-around score above the threshold to became a level-10 gymnast.  The next level is "elite."

But attaining that level isn't high on Pruchnik's mind.  She's looking for a scholarship to attend University of North Carolina or the University of New Hampshire to compete and study kinesthesiology and sports medicine.

"I don't know what it takes for the next step, actually," she said.  "I just kind of do it, and they tell me if I made it or not."

It's a good strategy for a person who excels at projecting her body through the air while twisting and upside down.

"You can't think to much about it," she said.  "If you think about it too much, you get scared."