Olympic Gold Introduction

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I joined at the last minute a writing class online...for our introduction we had to introduce ourselves as the person you always wanted to be growing up, what we loved about the dream and why this version of yourself was going to be the best ever. We were also to include shortcomings- side of this hoped for reality you didn't see before.
While this "introduction" of myself is not entirely truthful- the dream was.



She has the elegance of a royal court, the grace of a ballerina, the balance of a tightrope walker, the endurance of a marathon runner, the strength of a high jumper, the rhythm of a dancer, and the performance of a mime.
2010 Canadian Olympic Figure Skating hopeful Ashlee is on the ice at 5:00am in a simple black dress and wrap sweater her mom had knit for her. Her blades cut into the ice, deep long strokes all around the ice; it looks like she is flying. Her long dark brown hair pulled off her face into a messy bun, wisps of loose hairs touch her cheek as she comes to the boards to stretch and visualize her program, her perfect program. She comes to the triple Lutz triple toe jump in her head and she flinches inside because she can feel the pain in her hip from the falls on that jump attempt this week.

One deep breath she pushes play on the stereo and skates to center ice and takes her position. The music starts, soft and slow and her arms open like a flower and she begins to float around the rink with intricate steps jumping and spinning with perfection. Up next the dreaded triple triple. She changes direction, prepares her arms and extends her leg back. Her toe pick digs in hard and with all the power she has she lifts herself up and around, 1, 2, 3 rotations and down to extended the leg again and pull herself up for 3 more rotations. The smile of her face extends from ear to ear as she lands with ease. A little victory pump of her arm she finishes her program closing her arms around her.

Her mind wanders to her past in her small town rink…her heart aches at the memories of being ridiculed and told she was wasting her time with all this silly “ice dancing” and the ice could better be used by the hockey team. Now she is a Medal contender for the Olympics and those hockey players play rec hockey now if they can put their skates on past their beer bellies. She can’t wait until they see her now….

The ice is a lonely place though. Her family is far away, the boy who loved her, she pushed him away. Her friends were her skate sharpener and her stuffed teddy bear. The dream of gold has been a long hard battle.

2010 Olympics come and go, year and years of training for 6 minutes of ice time. She comes in second place---not quite gold. The love of her life was there when she bowed down to have the medal placed over her neck. She ran to him and told him that as much as she wanted that gold medal it could never bring her the joy and happiness that he could bring her.

They moved back to their quite small town life, where things were simpler, happier and her heart was full of love. She teaches now, Math, English, Gym, Art sharing her love of learning with many children. She also shares her love of skating to those just starting out and afraid to fall…”It’s okay to fall” she says. “It makes you strong”.

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