Ice-skating Hope

Yesterday an amazing thing happened. This may sound odd, but it was one of the most challenging things that I have ever had to do. I nanny for a little boy who just turned five and I was nannying for him all day yesterday. His mother suggested that we go ice-skating because it would be something fun to do and he had never gone. I had not been ice-skating since I was in high school and thought it would be fun too.

We arrived at the ice skating rink, rented skates and were about to go on the ice. As I peered at the ice-skating rink, watching people zoom across the ice, I was reminded of how hard it was when I first learned to ice skate. It then dawned on me, how was I going to teach someone to ice skate for the first time and could I even still ice-skate?

I held on to the little boy tightly by the hand and told him to hold the railing. He watched all the skaters going by and said, “I want to ice skate right now!” I explained that it takes a little time and he could do it, he just had to learn some basic things first. He was impatient and moving his feet as fast as possible, only to fall. He would cry and I would explain, to be successful at this, we are going to have to take some falls. He began blaming me for why he could not do it, looking in my eyes with desperation that he wanted to have this skill. I did not know what to do and then I said, lets get off the ice.

We got off the ice and just observed the other skaters. We observed adults, way older than him moving barely an inch at a time, still holding onto the railing. We observed people who looked like professionals, gliding smoothly along the ice, spinning around and coming to a stop effortlessly. We observed little kids falling or just walking upon the ice. We observed it all and figured out what was working best for people and how we could achieve that. The forward motion seemed to be the trick. We practiced off the ice moving forward one foot at a time and not stopping.

We got back on the ice and to my amazement, he was moving, while holding on to the railing, not falling like before. He said he wanted to go faster like the other people. I said he could, but it would take some time. A clump of people were all at the railing and we had to decide if we would wait for them to move ahead or challenge ourselves to go away from the railing and glide past them. Of course he and I took the challenge. I just told him don’t stop, keep going forward, don’t stop moving. When we finally stopped, we not only had passed all those people. We had looped around the entire rink. I said to the little boy, how about we try going around one more time and then we go home and he said, how about three more times. Now that is determination! Not only did we circle around the rink three more times, but we circled around pretty darn fast. Two things this boy had asked for happened…to learn to skate right at that moment and also skate fast.

That is the power of will and determination. He fell down and he got back up. He did not let it stop him and as much as I thought it would be challenging to see him sad and angry, I did not lose my patience in teaching him, I believed in him.

I truly believe anything is possible if you want it bad enough. This is a small story, but he held the hope and I did not give up on him. To him it is a day in his life that gained him a new skill set. It also taught me how important it is to have patience and encouragement towards another person. I think of my own life and all the dreams and things I have wanted to accomplish. I always held the hope that they would come true and sometimes I was lucky enough for the right people to come along, hold the hope with me and challenge my potential. I hope God continues to bring people and scenarios into my life that helps me to do what seems to be the impossible. This year alone, I have learned our minds are more powerful than we can imagine. As the new year approaches, I feel proud of all that I accomplished this year and excited for more new beginnings. It doesn’t matter if you are 5 or 85, we can always grow and learn and challenge our potential. What is something you think you can’t do? Maybe you should give it one more try!