I wish

I want to be a figure skater. When I was growing up one of my closest friends was a figure skater. She drove over an hour 3 times a week to get trained, and skated at the local rink all of the other days. She gave up in middle school/high school but I always secretly envied her. She could skate backwards on ice, she was graceful and beautiful and she could do jumps and spins. I couldn't do any of that. I remember one day, we went to the local ice rink (which was like a fish bowl in the mall where people could look down and watch you from the food court), and I attempted to skate. I was told it was just like rollerblading. I wanted to be good so bad. I couldn't keep up with my friend. I kept skating around and she would skate backwards to talk to me, go to the center and do a few fancy spins. *sigh. Oh how I wanted to be that graceful. I knew I never would be. Watching the Winter Olympics, always makes me remember this particular ice skating trip. I realized that I would never be a good figure skater. I realized that I was not nearly graceful enough and that it would never happen. To this day on the rare occasion I'm on ice skates, I fall.

All of this makes me appreciate the hard work and dedication all of the Olympic athletes put into their sports. They make the impossible look easy. I hope that in my passions, I too can perfect my work so that to the outsider it looks easy.