Follow a Dream

Well, I'm back. Fighting my way through the crud-like illness, I was finally back on the ice. For the first and probably only time, I'm glad I didn't sign-up for Adult Nationals because I would have been sick during the competition and would have had to withdraw. Not happening. Progress is being made; again, my Salchow has made a return appearance and my other jumps are peeking around the corner. Even my spins are back on speaking terms with me. I just wish I had some stamina and didn't have to stop so often to catch my breath. Damn this illness! It's important to note that the other coach I had wanted to work with (not my primary coach, nor my jump coach) well, things didn't work out between us. Our schedules didn't jive and it was just better that at this point we go our separate ways. I wish I could say that we came to a mutual decision, but that isn't true. She simply didn't come for my lessons. I have made myself into an early morning skater and she is not an early morning person. To be honest, neither am I, but for the ice, I will go to bed at 9:30pm and wake up at 4:30, leave at 5:30 and get to the rink at 6:30 for a 7:00 session. It's hard, but it has to be done. And I understand that not everyone can make that commitment to be at a location that early in the morning. No hard feelings; it just didn't work out. Previously, I have announced that I was ending my tenure as Ice Monitor. I had promised myself that it was over and I wasn't doing it again, only to return the following season when asked. Well, this time I've had enough. I can no longer be verbally abused by skaters, coaches and parents because I'm trying to enforce the rules. I have to say that if I were white, no one would speak to me in that fashion. No skater would scream at me to the point where I stand there debating calling the police. No parent should tell me I'm a waste of time because she has to pay for the ice. No coach should argue with me about what level the skater has to be in order to skate the session. That is a rule that has never changed. I don't make these rules; I just enforce them, or I did. There are two sessions left, and I have already told the club president that I will not be returning. She would like to return, but when I mentioned the issues I have been up against, she said she understood. The skater who screamed at me is being spoken to, but to be honest, he can twirl on it. He's not as wonderful as he tells everyone he is. My job, like everyone else, has a certain amount of stress. Since I negotiate payments, there's a bit more stress in my job. I have to tolerate a certain amount of disrespect at work both from some of my co-workers (some of whom think I'm too old to know ANYTHING!) and from the office managers/financial managers I have to negotiate with. I do not need to be spoken to like the field help at the rink. The rink is my oasis, my safe place. Not a place for additional stress. I look forward to sleeping on Sunday mornings. I look forward to the adult skating camps I will be attending. But most of all, I look forward. "Look, look Look to the rainbow. Follow it over the hill And the stream. Look, look Look to the rainbow. Follow the fellow Who follows a dream."* *Look to the Rainbow from Finian's Rainbow. Music by Burton Lane; Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg