Life as a Second-Chance Ice Skater

My adult-skater journey is officially two years old today, and I still can't believe I finally returned to the ice 16 years after a sprained ankle had me bidding a very grateful adieu to a sport I didn’t like that much and wasn’t very good at in the first place. It has been one humbling, heartening adventure filled with seemingly insurmountable challenges and positively addicting rewards that I am so lucky to call mine. I have learned so much about myself--including how to be a better version of me--because of this sport. I have made so many new friends because of it, both IRL and through digital communities, and the incredible, tireless support I’ve gotten from my skating sisters is only matched by the friends who’ve both uncomplainingly revised plans to accommodate the song of my people (“I caaaaan’t, because skating”) and who do things like veritably bombard me with so much love the day I passed my first test. I'm so thankful that so many amazing people want to come along

This month marks two years since I started my journey as an adult skater. While I am still staunchly mediocre (which is fine: SO MANY of the adult skaters I admire took about four years to consider themselves skaters instead of beginners, and I WILL eventually make peace with that apparently also being my reality), I HAVE made progress both on and off the ice. I was 32 when I finally decided to take a new year’s resolution seriously, and I am so grateful that skating was the perfect storm to launch me toward a victory of completion and a triumph over my knack for vacillating between half-hearted commitment and half-assed follow-through. I don’t really talk much about the context of what got me back into skating beyond the trifecta of a coworker suggesting that I get a hobby with a conviction most likely fueled by their proximity to my impending professional meltdown, a college friend’s then-recent foray into skating inspiring me to give the sport another shot, and my determination to