Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved to skate. She dreamed of a day when she could skate for money, and never stop doing what she loved. But, often, that day seemed far away.

Then one Sunday, the girl went down to Boston. And they got lost, and drove around the city twice (that's the boring part, though).

Finally, they arrived at a magical place: The Skating Club of Boston. There, they met very nice woman and watched a theater on ice team practice. They talked about skating levels, and Nationals, and Worlds, and the ups and downs and struggles and successes of skating on a senior TOI team.

Once, the girl asked about the Novice level team, because she thought that's where she'd probably end up.

"Oh, you'd be too good for that team." the woman said.

She had never been told that before.

The girl found out there was a workshop in August, and then auditions in September. She looked at the girls during practice and thought, after a bit of learning curve, "I could do this."

On the way home that night, the girl thought about her goals, and dreams, and how skating  was what she loved and all she wanted to do. She thought about all the time she'd spent this last year, and how she hadn't felt that she'd improved. But then she remembered where she was exactly a year ago. She realized she'd had improved--just in small increments, so she'd hardly noticed until it hit her all at once.

The girl thought about trying Novice Moves in the Field in August.

She thought about her better attempts at axels lately.

And she thought about TOI.

And for the first time, she looked to her dreams and said, "I could do this."