By the time I was 12-years- old, I had been figure skating for the past six years of my life. I wasn’t that great. That was something I already knew but it was something I continued to do for the fun of it. Initially, when I was around six-years-old, I wanted to be a professional figure-skater, which was similar to all the other little kids who wanted to be an astronaut, ballerina, or olympic gymnast. It wasn’t necessarily realistic, especially for a Hawaii girl, but my parents still got me a pair of skates and some ice lessons. When I finally turned 12, I became less and less motivated, and decided that I wanted to quit. During my first two weeks of summer, I had gone to Nevada to visit my aunt and uncle. My coach, at the time, suggested that I practice at some of the rinks in Vegas, so I wouldn’t become too out of practice. I agreed and visited at least three different ice rinks, practicing for two hours every other day. However, it was then that I knew for sure I wanted to quit. Previously mentioned. I had always known I wasn’t that great, and when I went to Nevada, I saw just how behind I was. There were six-year-olds doing triple axels, double loops and salchows, and triple toe loops. Meanwhile, I could barely do half of the things the mainland girls were doing. …show more content…
For the past three years, I had come to hate waking up at 4:30 am, three days a week, in order to get to my morning practices. Not only that, but my skates, which were very costly, always gave me blisters; competition dresses were over 100 dollars; and I was in a constant state of being in between hot and cold. Additionally, I only liked spinning. I hated jumping. So when I finally told my parents I had realized that figure-skating was never going to be for me, they were relieved, to say the least. I wasn’t the only one who hated waking up before the crack of