It's Easy - You Can Do It

Growing up, roller skating was not part of my world. On the farm, there were not paved roads or parking lots and roller skating was not thought of or talked about. We ran, rode bikes or horses.

Time went by, I grew up, married & moved away from home and moved many times. My son learned to roller skate as natural as breathing and so did all his friends. I watched and thought, “ I can do that, it can’t be that hard, just some coordination and balance.” After all, I was physically agile, had played all the sports growing up and my body could do whatever I asked. But I never tried skating until one day my friend Dorothy said, “Come skating with me Saturday night at the rink near the High School. My kids are going and I’d like company”. I said, “I can’t skate.” She said, “I know, but it’s easy - I’m sure you can do it.” It didn’t take much persuasion – I was ready to try my ability. I was about 40 years old and knew that if I was ever going to do it – it better be now. I remembered when I was a kid and the field workers would come in for the night with the mules and wagons and I’d run to the front yard to get a ride on the wagon to the barn. I could ride in the wagon, standing up without holding on. If I could do that, surely I could skate.

Saturday night came and off we went. The two boys were on the rink and skating in no time. Dorothy patiently helped me choose the right skates and put them on. Then she guided me to the rink and showed me the rail that went around the rink. She left me holding on as she joined the kids skating like a breeze around the rink.

Ok, I said to my self – hold on, get the feel of this, don’t panic. And I started trying to walk to the end of the rink. I held on tight – my legs were not under my control, one would scoot out in the lane and trip somebody up, or they would wrap around each other like pretzels, or even cause me to do the split (which I didn’t know I could do).

Dorothy would skate by and say, “You’re doing fine”. I gritted my teeth. I didn’t understand this problem, it ought to be easy. Take a deep breath, calm down and let your body find its way. Good thoughts but no improvement. Then I decided that the problem was that I was holding on – I needed to let go of the rail and it ought to be fine. I took a big breath, gave myself a little push, let go, and glided until I needed to do something – I tried, I fell right there in the middle of the lane with a rush of skaters right behind me. They all fell over me. I looked up from the bottom of twisted and tangled legs, bodies and faces. At that moment, I knew that I was not the most popular person at the rink. They all untangled themselves and went on their way.

Dorothy gently helped me up – what a scene, arms, legs and torso all going different directions. When that was finally accomplished, she led me to the rail and then took off to join the boys. I’m sure she was thinking, she’ll keep trying and be fine.

I held onto the rail tight and inched my way to the gate to exit the rink. My whole body ached. I got to the gate, got off the rink, went to the nearest bench, put my face in my hands in frustration and embarrassment and thought, “That’s the last time I’ll ever try that. I just have to go through life not knowing how to skate. That’s ridiculous but that’s how it is!