Personal Narrative Essay about Skating

The feeling I receive as the thin blade glides across the ice. The ice chips fly across the air as the wind blows elegantly onto my face. A certain warmth fills me as I step onto the cold, thin sheet of frozen water. My heart beating vigorously out of my chest, my lungs engulfing the cold air of the ice arena, and my feet tingling as the hard boots crush my toes. 

Skating can be a very demanding sport. One where people are expected to be perfect takes years and years of practice to become good. From the copybook figure to the elegant posture and the flawless extension, skaters spend thousands of dollars on private coaching, choreographers, and high-intensity workout classes. This sport is not only encaptivating but also mentally challenging. I have always been an aggressive skater, one who couldn't pass up the opportunity to try a new jump or footwork sequence. But no matter how talented you are, failure is inevitable. The idea of falling in a jump is more terrifying than anything else life has to throw at you. As a skater, falling could mean time off the ice, which is something most of us couldn’t even begin to imagine.

It all started with my double Lutz. Now I know you may be thinking, what is this funny worded jump and how do you do it? Learning how to do doubles was hard on the body and very stressful for me. Performing a double lutz should take off on an outside edge with my left leg (going backward), dig my right toe pick in the ice behind me, jump off the ice (spinning two times in the air), and land on my right foot on an outside edge (still moving backward). When learning a new technique, such as that one, it is unlikely to land it on the first try, given that I have less than one second to complete all of the instructions for just that one jump. I still remember the day that I viciously fell onto the ironically soft-yet-very-hard ice, nailing myself on the knee. After that fall, I had to take a few weeks off of the ice. My body needed some time to heal and my brain needed some time to think. I was heartbroken; I felt as if I wasn't good enough, or physically fit enough, to complete this jump. Sitting in my room, I thought about how I was going to improve myself. The next week when I was able to return, I appreciated the feeling of the blades passing through the stiff ice more than ever before.

Looking back on this experience, I’m realizing that despite my shortcomings, I truly enjoy every aspect of this sport. Every icy moment has created a flame of passion that burns every time I skate. I've discovered that dedication is the key to life because when you want something bad enough, you must work hard enough to achieve it.