Things I Learned in San Jose

Happy Super Bowl Sunday.  I will hopefully catch some of this game I don’t understand (football is so confusing!) in an Irish pub somewhere here in Munich.

Speaking of confusing sports, I was lucky enough to work and watch the 2012 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, California.

Things I learned during my week in San Jose:

Ice skating is fun to watch.

There is not one cell in my body that wishes I were still competing.

I can say the above because I still get to skate and perform a lot.  I am very grateful for that.

Speaking of which, Brent and I should be really proud that we still skate together, even if we don’t like each other much (just kidding Brent.)

Also, I probably don’t wish I were competing because everyone is so damn good.  I know I’d get my booty kicked.

In certain environments, old habits must be hard to break because although I was not competing, I was still very critical of myself (see below.)

I have not mastered the English language.  Complete sentences are still a struggle.

While someone is having what seems to be their most important moment in their life on the ice, someone else is selling popcorn.

And, here is something else:

After watching all the wonderful skating in San Jose, I found myself really inspired. I now want to go home, jump on some sequin-free ice, and work on my skating skills...and my speed, flexibility, some creative lifts, and maybe even some fast twizzles.

I would describe all the skaters who made me feel this way as “inspiring," because, obviously, their skating is what makes me feel inspired.

Then I think about Jeremy Abbott. 

And I realize I wouldn’t describe Jeremy’s skating as “inspiring.”  He might be inspiring as a person, but not his skating.

This is what his skating is to me: devastating.

Watching Jeremy skate does not motivate me to become a better skater.  Instead, I want to throw my skates in the garbage and write apology letters to anyone who has seen me skate, for I have greatly wasted their time.

Because while watching him skate (and I am talking about the way he moves on the ice here) you realize that what you are watching is the closest thing to organic perfection you might ever see.

It is the level beyond the level beyond inspiring.  It’s from some other universe.  It cannot be taught or learned, it is completely natural, and it is what we all wish we had, which is why it is so crushing.

I don’t say this to make Jeremy feel bad (I would never!) but more to put into words this thing I just realized, that somewhere far beyond the land of inspiration lies the land of devastation.

Plus, we need the Jeremy Abbotts of the world to help put us in our place, which is standing, in awe, and drooling just a little...which isn’t a bad place to be ;)