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Ice Skating with My Daughter Quiets My Inner Perfectionist and Helps Me Redefine Success
Progress is cause for celebration.
I grew up in the golden age of Olympic TV (between 1988 and 1998, the Winter Games were held four times.) While I spent my childhood on roller skates, I secretly dreamed of gliding across the ice like an Olympian. Hearing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as Asian-American skaters Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Ohno stood atop the podium helped contribute to my sense of belonging. We are American, too.
But their athletic ability was supernatural, perfected through years of intense training from a young age. Michelle Kwan was just 13 when she began competing internationally. Meanwhile, I could barely keep my balance without hugging the wall. What could I possibly get out of skating? My ice dreams lay dormant for years.
When my daughter received a pair of hand-me-down skates, I saw an opportunity. If I planted the skating seed early enough, maybe she could develop the confidence on ice that I never had.
My daughter has small feet, so although she was 7-years-old, her first skates were actually a toddler pair with unsharpened double blades for balance. Instead of gripping the ice, she shuffled on top of it, like a penguin. When our first session ended, she wanted to know how…
