#20170227

I planned on going out to FaceTime my sister, but it turns out my nephew has the flu, so the couple hours I'd set aside were suddenly open. I looked up an open public skate and went and rented a pair of skates because I hadn't brought mine with me. I started just skating around the rink in circles. There were a couple of boys playing hockey that eventually got told off (they weren't supposed to have sticks on the ice), a professional figure skater (who I admired from afar because she was fucking incredible), some random dudes skating for fun, and a couple of parents with their toddler kids. The first random dude left a couple minutes after I got on the ice. 

I kind of kept to a line at the far side of the rink not wanting to be in anyone's way, but after a while I got to thinking, why am I doing this? I deserve to be on the ice just as much as anyone else. So I spread myself out a little more and kept telling myself, I deserve to be here. I have to work to achieve my dream, I deserve to be here too. I meant to work on my snowplow stops, and I kinda got them down, but I ended up mostly focusing on working on my half-swizzles and my balance on my non-dominant foot. I may or may not have fallen.... but it was only once! >.> 

And then I worked up the courage to talk to the professional skater. She'd been filming herself doing stunts, presumably for review and practice, and I told her how incredible she was. She said she was old and out of shape and I was thinking if this is you out of shape I'd love to see you in top form. Her name was Sarah, and I told her how I hoped to be as good as her someday. She gave me some great advice: don't be afraid of falling, because you're going to bite it more often than not ("I still bite it all the time"), and that it's going to take hard work and a long time. But she all encouraged me in my dream of competing and told me how awesome the adult competition circuit is, how supportive and fun the competitors are. And she asked how old I was and told me I had plenty of time. It was something I think I really needed.