Certain Events Change Our Impression of Life

People can say that three and a half minutes is insignificant compared to the rest of our lives, but I know that three and a half minutes can be an eternity, and can change everything about me. Training six days a week, every week of the year, for the past seven years, all of that to come down to this last program, this last 3 and a half minutes. Those 3 and a half minutes better last forever. Six minute warm-up, then two and a half minutes of all the attention on me.

Six minute warm-up, then three and a half minutes of all the attention on me.

Eighteen minutes in total, over two days. I tried to listen to my coaches’ last words of advice but all I could hear was the pounding of blood rushing in my ears. This is it, it’s now or never. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, and when I looked up to my coaches, I could see the look of confidence in their eyes.

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In that single moment when I could see that they believed in me, I believed in me. The rushing in my ears disappeared, my nerves calmed, and I could hear my coaches again. It was time to ‘shake it, and then bake it’.

With that final handshake I skated to center ice, took a deep breath, smiled, and began the program that would change me. As I began my program everything vanished, the crowd, the judges, even my doubts and fears. All that was left was the ice, my skates, my music, and I.

It was as if a bubble had enveloped me, and every negative thought disappeared. No longer could I remember the pain, the tears, and the pure physical agony that brought me to this moment, because they were no longer important. What was important was that I prove to myself that I could do this, and for once I believed.

My body was on auto-pilot, it was trained to know exactly what to do, and I just let muscle memory take over. I achieved clarity in that time. I realized that every pain and struggle that I went through was worth it. That every sacrifice I made, and that my family made brought me to this point and that if there is one thing to learn in life, it’s that no matter what happens, no matter what we go through, we can survive it. In life we are not set up to fail, we make decisions that can potentially lead to failure, but we have every chance, and every ability to succeed.

There is no easy route in life; all anyone can do is face the storm head on. Our friends are our life boats, our family our paddles, and our morals our life jackets. There is no limits in life, only the ones we place on ourselves, and I will no longer let doubt and fear confine my dreams, because I can overcome adversity, I do it everyday. So as they placed that National Silver Medal around my neck, and I looked out at the crowd, I broke through the shackles of constraint and I believed.