Imagine a five-year-old kindergarten girl getting invited to ice skate with her friends, stepping on the ice for the first time, and falling in love with it. That six-year-old girl was me. At first, I went skating for fun, until I realized how much I loved it. My parents signed me up for lessons and I started right away. They bought me my first pair of Riedell ice skates. At first, moving on the ice was difficult, and I thought I would never be able to get the hang of it. My coach was very patient and taught me techniques to help me move on the ice smoothly. Every day after school, my mom would take me to practice and watch me learn for hours. She picked up some tips from my coach to try and help me when we got home. I started with beginner moves until I leveled up and was able to do more complex moves. Once I got good enough, I was entered into a competition. I was excited to learn about my routine. …show more content…
I was six years old doing my first figure skating competition. I was wearing a black long sleeved velvet competition dress with my hair in a bun. I did my small routine, which consisted of bunny hops, backward crossovers, and forward lunges, and felt relieved after. I was still incredibly nervous to see the results, and once I did, I was a little disappointed. I got last place, and my coach was very proud of me for going out and trying and told me we would work on a few things for my next competition. I was upset because I knew I could do better, and I almost
Success is not given, it is earned. Waking up for a 5am skating practice is nobody’s ideal Wednesday morning, especially for a hormonal teenager like myself. However, satisfaction of landing a new jump or learning a new spin does not come from letting our ‘wants’ buyout our dreams. “By the time we’d finished, we were amazed at how much the book had taught us: about ourselves.” I don’t always succeed, nor do I always expect to. Throughout all the morning practices and late night workouts, failure is something I have learned from. I remember giving up on myself countless times after falling on a jump or not turning my edges properly, as if I had ‘writer's-block,’ feeling completely numb. Nevertheless, succeeding was the easy part, it was learning to grow into the 6 year old singing, confident, child again, and defeating the numbness. I have learned, along the way, people are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your hard work. However, it is the end product that matters. It will be I who knows how to complete a program, or I who knows how to work hard. Staying focused as the athlete I am, not letting people side track me, builds the confidence to know ‘I finished the
After being mesmerized by figure skating at the age of eight, I became a member of the Markham Skating Club. As a competitive figure skater, I must perform various jumps and spins in a choreographed program. I have participated in numerous competitions in Central Ontario and have received multiple medals for my achievements. Yet, my achievement as a figure skater stem from the adversity that I faced throughout my skating journey. This sport has imposed challenges to both my mental and physical strength that have ultimately constructed the qualities of dedication and humility within myself.
In the sport of figure skating, there are six basic jumps for a skater to learn. They are the axel, toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, and the lutz. When a skater masters a single axel to a double lutz, it is time for them to learn the double axel. I was thirteen years old when I was introduced to this element. My coach and I set specific goals to include this element in my repertoire for the following competitive season. Landing a double axel is a huge milestone for any skater and it serves as a stepping stone to new competitive opportunities. However, such success does not come without hard work. It required several months of effort to successfully land it and nearly two years of patience
When I was about four or five years old, I was introduced to Ballet. I adored being a little ballerina and would read the same dance booklet everyday, practicing the five positions and gracefully positioning my tiny arms and fingers to match the little girl in the illustrations. Because I loved dance so much, my mother enrolled me in Donna Hammond-Phelps
I have been playing ice hockey since I was seven years old. By age ten, I knew I loved being a hockey goalie more than anything else. I dedicated my time to achieve my goal of playing at the highest level possible. Over the years, I worked extremely hard to learn my position. I took private lessons,
I have been a dancer since the age of 3. My earliest memory of dance was when I was too terrified to go on stage during a recital and I refused to go on no matter how much they tried to push me. Up until the age of about 12, dance had been just a hobby or an extracurricular activity. In fact, I didn’t even enjoy going to dance. I didn’t have friends there and I wasn’t that good of a dancer. It wasn’t until I participated in Dance Bermuda’s summer dance intensive in collaboration with the American Ballet Theatre in 2012, that I realized that I had a passion for dance. At the program, I was exposed to other dancers that were my age and older and most of them were much more advanced than I. So to avoid being the worst dancer in the program, I took to YouTube and watched hours and hours of dance videos. I researched all the ways to improve my ballet technique. I can remember trying to practice my pirouettes in the kitchen and falling onto the table and knocking a whole bunch of things over. I was determined to be as good as the other girls in the program. By the end of the two weeks I was fired up, motivated, and ready to get back to class after the summer.
It was try out day, I was super nervous what if I mess up the cheer what if I drop my stunt? I went out there did everything right I was certain I had it in the bag. They walked out with the results, I think I read that paper ten times before running away crying because I didn’t make it.
After thinking about failure, I remember my first year of Peewee hockey, where I had failed to make the “A” team. Every year prior to my first year in Peewees, I had always been placed on the more advanced (higher skill level) hockey team. I worked hard throughout the tryouts and thought I had a good chance to be on the Peewee “A” team. I remember waiting anxiously for the results to be posted online. After several days, the results were posted and my name was listed on the Peewee “B” team. I had failed to make the more advanced team. To this day, I still remember telling my dad that I should just quit hockey and that I just wasn’t good anymore. In this situation, I should have been more like Jim Marshall. Jim Marshall did a good job accepting
As I nervously waited behind the curtain I hear my name get called by the announcer to go perform. “Next up is Meghana Pulimi.” As I step on the cold, shiny, ice wearing my bright yellow skater dress. Don’t fall! Remember to go in a circle twice. All those thoughts ran through my head, as I start skating to my start position. Once I get there everyone starts clapping. I could hear my parents cheering me on, and other people in the bleachers saying whoo!! Everyone start to cheer me on and that made me really glad and I started to become more confident.Then I got a big smile on my face. My hands were on my hips and legs were still freezing but then when the music started I thought “You can do this”. Then I started gracefully skating. At the
Frustrated, I stormed off the ice ready to quit as I started untying my skates in fury. But before I could throw in the towel, my parents stopped me, they laced my skates back up and put me right back on the ice. For the next couple of weeks my parents were unyielding as they continuously brought me to the rink, laced my skates up and placed me on the ice, urging me to stay persistent. At the time I loathed my time at the rink as I thought it was pointless, but as each week passed I seemed to be getting better to the point where after around a month I finally mastered the basics of skating. Skating had become as normal as walking to me and what had previously seemed like something only achievable through magic, had become mastered through devotion and persistence.
I started karate practice when I was a kid, particularly Shurite Ryu karate. When I started, the students went to the dojo twice a week. We practiced Makiwara, Kata, Kumite, we trained from basic to sparring. I got hurt and injured sometimes but I liked training. I remember doing a lot of practice before the tournament.
It was competition day, we had just competed and were heading to awards. We were against 11 teams, and were so nervous. We’re all crossing hands waiting then he announces we got 1st. We were so excited. We sit down, and wait for awards to finish. Towards the end they start announcing the judges favorite, the best costume, most crowd applause, and the overall winner.
Skateboarding is a sport, an art form, and a lifestyle. On an ordinary day, a skateboarder picks up their friends and drive to their favorite spots to try new moves. They cheer themselves on while they subject themselves to much physical activity and discipline all in a day’s work. It is a sport with no pressure to do better than anyone else; there are no winners or losers. You skate until you’re exhausted and go to bed early only to repeat the process the following morning. Skateboarding is one of the best hobby’s anyone can have. Everyone should learn how to do it because it has exceptional health benefits and it will help people build character while simultaneously meeting incredible people.
Like any first experience we remember all the details of the event. I remember my first dance class at J in Jazz Dance Studio. I was under the instruction of Julie Pederson who was one of the young faces in my little town of Sierra Vista. I was thirteen and thought that the class was awesome. Now if you are under the impression that I was great the first time around you are wrong. I was the one goofy awkward kid who was there having fun. Julie thought that I would be gone by the end of three months because I couldn’t hack it. She was just glad that I was there having fun and being a good student. According to some experts, since I started after the age of ten I was not supposed to be any good. Just six months after starting, something somewhere happened to both me and my dance ability. I was put on the competition/performance team, and then I just kept excelling from there. Every year or two, I was put on a higher more difficult team.
I didn’t show up at the Miss Lanier pageant expecting to win. There were at least 15 other girls competing against me. I just wanted to have fun that day. I was nine years old at the time. I wasn’t nervous at all, not about the 15 girls competing against me, not nervous about the three judges at the front of the stage, not nervous at all. Now that I look back on that day, I realize that I should’ve been nervous; my hands should’ve been shaking, my stomach turning, and my brain in turmoil while waiting to step on stage. But I wasn’t. All I wanted to do that day was have fun and maybe make a friend or two. My mom and I stood behind the stage, waiting, just waiting. At one point the pageant director came to make sure nothing was wrong. Some of the girls next to me were acting like it was Miss Universe, but I was just treating it like a dressed up walk on a stage. Once she left we stood in a line at the back entrance to the