Sweet is Never as Sweet Without the Sour
I started figure skating when I was 6 years old. I was raised by my grandmother, and needless to say, grandmas show their love through our stomachs. I was chubby, grandma thought it was too much, and she heard from the mothers at school that skating was THE way for me to lose the weight (that she’d very much helped to put on me in the first place). She took me to the rink one day and in her one hand was a figure skate, and a speed skate in the other. I chose the figure skate, and that’s how it all began.
I loved figure skating. None of the training felt like training; I slept, ate, and breathed figure skating. I went to a well-known private school in Korea, and sports was a huge part of the school culture. I would start my day at the rink some days, get driven to school by my coach, then picked up by my coach to go back to the rink, and then I’d go home with grandma after practice to do my homework. The weekends were even better because I could spend all day at the rink. That was my life. I didn’t have toys or video games, and “play dates” weren’t a part of my world. I fell in love with skating, and a big part of why is because I became good at it.
I was raised by my dad’s mother, sister, and two brothers. These 4 people were my entire world and are even to this day. I grew up around people working hard to sacrifice everything for me. I am forever grateful for them teaching and showing me the meaning of hard work and dedication. I was raised to know that nothing in life is given to you; that if you wanted something, then you worked for it.
Everything was harder for me because I was heavier, but it wasn’t long before I caught up to the kids in my age group and surpass them! Grandma had a lot to do with that. Every waking moment that I wasn’t doing school-related work, I was at the rink, with her never-ending gaze upon me. As soon as she saw me goofing off, I was quickly called to her side and told to cut the nonsense. That was grandma, and that’s what made me great. Then for the next three years, I won all the competitions becoming one of the top skaters in my age group. I still have the newspaper clippings where I was featured and those three years are my happiest memories, even to this day.
When I was 9 years old, I had to give up skating when I moved to NY to live with my dad. I think what we don’t realize is that we welcome discipline in our lives. That we need it. I distanced myself from everything skating. I couldn’t even watch it on the television because it would make me sad since it was no longer a part of my life.
I stayed active and participated in team sports throughout high school. I started working out soon after college and fell in love. Maybe it’s because I’d always been athletic, but it was fun to see my body responding and changing, to the training. Going to the gym and training gave me that discipline that skating had provided. When life became crazy, the one thing that I could always depend on was my relationship with training. I got out of it exactly what I’d put into it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Skating came back into my life more recently as part of the most thoughtful Christmas gift that I’d ever received, and at the most perfect time. There were a lot of emotions, being back on the ice, but the one that eventually took over was that fire that I had when I was 9 years old. At first, I was happy to be back on the ice, but that just wasn’t enough for me. I needed a goal to work toward because “I started skating again” wasn’t enough. I started taking lessons and realized that muscle-memory is an actual thing! I was able to do crossovers, spins, and basic jumps in a matter of weeks and I was just thrilled. I am working on my pre-bronze testing elements and will work my way up from there.
Working toward achieving a goal will change something in you without you even realizing it. Your whole mindset shifts to help you to achieve that goal. The nonsense that was stressing you out becomes noise, and you make the necessary adjustments in your life where it now becomes a lifestyle to help achieve that goal.
My consistent gym routine has helped my skating tremendously. Core and leg strength are the base of everything in figure skating, and I’d imagine my journey back into skating would have been very different had it not been for the years of training in the gym. It hurts a lot more when you fall on the ice as a 37-year-old (and split your chin open, then put it back together with a butterfly closure), but….
