My Favorite Hobby

Ice Skating, Part I

I've found a new hobby that I am growing to love.

Ice skating.

It's funny because I hate the cold.  In fact, I wouldn't mind moving to a place where it never snows and where the weather never gets below forty or fifty degrees.  A place like that would be like heaven for me.  However, I love ice skating.

I went ice skating for the first time when I was about nine years old.  I wasn't very good and I believe I fell down quite a few times.  Basically, I skated for about half an hour and then put the entire ordeal out of my mind entirely.  Forget ice skating.  Forget the cold.  I could think of much more fun things to do with my time than wobble around a cold room on thin blades of metal. 

So that was my one and only experience of ice skating.  Ever.

In November, my friend Stephanie turned nineteen.  For her birthday, she asked if we could all go ice skating as a group.  Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure that the idea would work out for me, but it was Stephanie's birthday and I was gung-ho about celebrating with her.

So we went ice skating.  I wobbled and felt pangs of fear each time I nearly hit the ground, but I only fell twice.  And I actually kind of... enjoyed myself.  Unfortunately, ice skating was a little pricey, so I didn't figure we would go again anytime soon.

A few days ago, I was invited to go ice skating again, this time with a few members of my Impact group.  Amazingly, Thursday nights are "date nights," so if you go with a partner of any kind, you each only have to pay $4.  That isn't bad at all!

And although physical activities aren't usually my strongest area of skill, I didn't fall down once.  And I could go fairly fast.  And I had fun. 

After this experience, I was hooked.

Ice skating is officially my new favorite hobby.  I hope to go ice skating on many Thursdays.

And I really, really, really hope that the rumors going around that the ice rink in my town is closing down are all false.