What Happened When I Tried a New Thing in Alaska

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If you’ve ever discussed winter sports with me, you’ve heard me say that I think ice skating is dangerous. That’s because ice skating is dangerous. It’s basically walking around on knives. Why would you do that?

But when we decided to move to Alaska, I determined that I would try all the winter things, and that includes ice skating. Sure, I’d been skating one or two times before, but it was a a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I looked like this:

verity ice skating
Yes, that is me, wearing a denim skirt and a puka shell necklace and a beret at an ice skating rink. I was the coolest. My friends were the second coolest.

And on that day, one of my not-pictured-friends tripped on the ice and had her hand skated over. There was a lot of blood. I was mildly traumatized.

That’s why ice skating lessons for me and my two totally-new-to-skating kids sounded like a really good idea. I figured I’d just knock that fear right out of me. Google to the rescue, and I found a few sets of “all ages classes” conducted at the same time over four sessions in August.

Now, when you live somewhere that outdoor, winter things are just a way of life, you’re probably not going to encounter a lot of adults who are totally new to any given basic thing, like ice skating. I was nervous about trying this new thing. I thought that I would look like a fool who should know how to ice skate already, for the love. But the classes were advertised as for children through adults, so I knew I would be in good company.

And I was. There were lots of other students.

And when class started, the only problem seemed to be that because I was so tall, I was in the way while their moms tried to take videos of them.

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Yeah, that’s me in the blue, three instructors and my classmates. The next oldest student? David. (He’s 7.)

But it’s cool, because they put me in the advanced class right away … with a six-year-old. Neat!

The lesson here? Sometimes trying new things is humbling. Sometimes it is super humbling. And that’s OK … as long as you try anyway.

I had a good time, I didn’t fall flat on my face even once and, yeah, I’m a little better at ice skating. So that’s a win, right?

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