Submitted by Kristen T.
"I have been figure skating for eleven years and nine of  those years I was a synchronized figure skater. Before coming to STLCOP,  figure skating was such a huge part of my life; waking up every Saturday  morning at four thirty and ‘sleeping in’ until six on Sunday morning became a  ritual. And my senior year of high school I had to make a big decision, to  either pursue pharmacy at a college that has a synchronized skating team or  come to STLCOP and put my education first. I decided to put my education  first, however, it was a big adjustment from skating a least four times a  week and dedicating so much time to the beautiful sport to solely focusing on  school and not skating. However, although I am no longer a synchronized  skater, I have gained great experiences and friends from being involved in  the sport for so much of my life. My senior year, my team barely qualified  for Nationals because at Mids, the qualifying competition, we landed in  fourth place and only four teams got to go to Nationals. Then, a month later,  after doing drills to prepare for the altitude and all of us giving  two-hundred percent at each practice, we traveled to Colorado to compete at  Nationals. Nationals is a competition in which we got to compete against  twelve of the best teams in the country, and we won! We became the number one  team in the U.S. in the intermediate division. This was a truly incredible  way to end synchronized skating because all of our hard work truly paid off.  And although I am so proud and thankful for that experience, synchronized  skating gave me more than a gold National medal. It taught me how to work  with others, to be a true team player, something I will use for the rest of  my life, because in synchronized skating there are sixteen girls on the ice  that is thirty two blades right next to each other; communication is crucial.  I also learned time management and determination which has helped me so much  as a freshman at STLCOP. The sport gave me unbelievable friends that I will  have for years to come. And, possibly the most important thing I learned from  synchronized skating is that dreams do come true if you want something bad  enough. Even though I will no longer be a synchronized figure skater, I still  plan on keeping figure skating in my life because it is such an incredible  sport, one that I still have so much to learn from. And, when I am gliding  across the ice, all of my stress fades away and I feel like anything is  possible."
