This is a blog about a boy . . . and a boy’s dream . . . to one day skate competitively in the Olympics. But more specifically, what that boy did when his dream was lost.
It was late Fall of 2017 when I injured my knee during off ice training. The MRI was inconclusive, but the orthopedic surgeon thought it was a small meniscus tear. Inoperable was all I heard. The next Olympics were three short years away and I couldn’t bend my knee. The surgeon recommended a cortisone shot and physical therapy. With hard work, he was confident that over time, my knee would either get better, stay the same or get worse. . .
Fast forward three months and I am back to training again. Most people doubted that I could do it. At age 45, I was a long shot anyways but my real shortcoming, besides the knee, was that I have never had an ice skating lesson. Fate would shine on me though when I heard an advertisement on the radio to learn how to skate like the Vegas Golden Knights. This was my chance and I didn’t hesitate. Well, full disclosure, I heard this radio ad several times for about three months but was too busy with my day job to start anything new. And then after my schedule started to free up I had some traveling planned as I normally do after April 15th. But after that, I didn’t hesitate. I signed up for my first lesson.
I know what you are thinking at this point but let me stop you. I do know how to skate but what Las Vegas lacks in ice, it makes up for it in concrete. My skate of choice is the Reebok 7K Pump Inline Skate (the kind that you pump up after lacing to get a better fit) and my unbiased nieces and nephews think I am pretty good at the roller rink. I can skate forwards and backwards with swizzles and crossovers and I can even hockey stop (but only while playing hockey). For some reason, my native Michigan blood wanted to see if my skills could transfer over to the coolest playing surface on earth.
I started my lessons and as I progressed through the skill charts, I realized that ice skating was a perfect metaphor for what I teach during my day job. Lucky for my clients, I am better at that then I am a skating but alas, there is no CPA Olympics. So my dream is back to square one with one thirty minute lesson a week. Let’s see where it takes me.
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