Coach Pam insisted I needed to start with Coach Anya—yes, the one that gives me a death stare. Coach Pam doesn’t do spins as well as Anya, and I “needed to start focusing more time on each thing if I wanted to get better,” she told my parents. The only problem is Coach Anya only had times available during the homeschool session times… aka 1 PM. Mom, Dad, and I deliberated for weeks over our first hard decision of many: move schools or quit skating. Ultimately, we found a school that was three days a week for half a day… It was perfect. The school was specifically for athletes and artists… many of the girls who skated with me went there… None of them I liked. We were all around the same level. I noticed myself start to stare at what they were doing too… I don’t exactly know why, and I don’t like it. None of us talked, but we saw each other every day… and twice a day on Fridays when we would all go before school at 5 AM. On my last day of regular school, I found out that my friends all had a picture at a birthday party I wasn’t invited to. I cried the whole car ride to the rink. We submitted our deposit for Rivers Academy that day. Anya took me for a trial lesson and started me on a Biellman. We thought this was stupid… it was one of the hardest spins, and I wasn’t a good spinner. After all, I was naturally a jumper.
PROGRAM MUSIC 2018: ASSASSIN’S TANGO FROM “MR. AND MRS. SMITH”