A few days ago, I went ice skating with some friends. I was superexcited about the trip all week, trying to get more and more people to join me. When people asked if I was a great skater, I said I'd only gone once or twice when I was a kid, but I didn't see why that should stop me. I put my makeup on and got all cute and went outside to meet the girls I was going with and we excitedly walked over to the hockey rink. There was food and hot apple cider and people holding hands and skating, and it was so incredibly quaint and cute that I rushed over to the stand to rent my skates and began putting them on.
...And that's where the trouble began. I could barely STAND in them; how was I ever going to skate? My friend tried to convince me it wouldn't be so bad once I got out there, so I followed her onto the ice...and froze. What had I been thinking??? That I could just go out there on the ice for the first time in ten years and whiz past people like a pro? That ice skating was going to be just like roller skating? That I was just naturally good at everything? Whatever crazy misconception of my own life I'd been suffering from, it disappeared rather quickly as I realized I had no idea what I was doing out there.
So the wall surrounding the rink became my new best friend. Wallflowers aren't just for high school dances anymore; in my bright red sweater, I was a flower on the wall of Baker Rink. I held onto it for dear life and slowly made my way around the circumference of the rink. On my second time around, there was a girl doing worse than me, blocking my way on the wall and I had to leave the wall and skate unaided around her. My friend M saw this, applauded me for having let go of the wall for 10 seconds, and held out her hand to help me skate around with her without the wall for support. I was nervous, but I went around once with her; I still didn't feel comfortable afterward, though, and retreated to the wall. Then I saw my friend E, who I know used to be a figure skater in high school, and told her about how hard skating was for me. She said my skates were too loose, and once I fixed them, it was a whole new ball game! I began to skate near the wall, rather than holding onto it, and when my friend K held out her hand to skate with me, I wasn't that scared! It was especially poignant because about a month ago I taught her to roller skate in almost the same exact way, and I remember how scared and shaking she was; oh how the tables turn. An event photographer even took a picture of us in our cuteness, and when she went to get some food, I kept skating around by myself! Before the end of the night, I attempted to help teach someone else to skate better, learned the basics of skating backwards, and was DANCING in my skates on the ice.
Moral of the story: Recognize that being a wallflower is NOT cute. Recognize that you can do it, even if it's foreign and difficult in the beginning. Recognize that your friends are there to help you, and take their hands when they offer them in assistance. This whole damn world's a slippery, slidey, carved-up-and-full-of-nicks-and-grooves place, but if support and teamwork and patience and love got K, M, and I through the night without ever falling, then chances are pretty good we'll stay on our feet for a good long while.
(Just don't try to get too fancy. J was the only one who fell all night, after tryna show off, haha.)
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