- Joined
- Nov 18, 2014
Hey, everybody. I know it's been a LONG time since I logged on, but this seemed like as good a time as any to make an appearance. But why am I coming out of the woodwork right now, when I quit skating two years ago and have been too busy with school to keep up with the skating scene the way I used to?
Well.
Next week would've been my high school graduation. Relevant to nothing, I know, but graduations are a time to look back on your childhood and remember where you came from, and I can't do that without thinking about this forum.
I think all of you guys who were here when I was active realized that I was young, but I'm not sure if you know just how young I was. But when I joined, I was an antisocial thirteen-year-old who had exactly two friends and whose entire life revolved around figure skating. I always think that I was lonely back then, but at the time, I didn't realize I was - maybe that's because I wasn't. I had this forum. I had good friends (@invisible spiral, @cheerknithanson - do y'all still exist? You were my first internet friends!), a place to talk about what I loved, somewhere where I was treated as an equal by adults. This forum was so much of who I was and it gave me so many gifts: a community to belong to, vital writing practice because I somewhat foolishly thought that if I was a good enough writer people would think I was an adult (uhhh...sorry, Sarah, no), and a truly intense love of and expertise in all things figure skating that I carry with me to this day.
GoldenSkate made what would have been a pretty lonely childhood so much richer and more joyful, and on the eve of my would-be graduation, I have to thank you all for that. No one asked for my biography, I know, and now that I'm eighteen I can't really get away with the childishness I often showed in the hallowed halls of this forum five years ago, but I wanted to let you all know how much you mean to me, even though I've sort of disappeared. I may have drifted away, but I will always call the skating world home (I'm even working on a novel about skating that I'm planning to self-publish by the end of the summer!), and I have you guys to thank for that.
So, to everyone who befriended me; to everyone who took on the herculean task of keeping this forum up and running; to everyone who contributed to the lively discussions that made me so happy as a teen - thank you. To the skaters I looked up to - thank you. To those who helped me make memories, from the hilarious threads of speculation (Crazy Predictions Thread = BEST childhood memory!) to the iconic programs to the small-fed skater love to the games we'd play in Le Cafe to the four people who'd be in the competition threads with me giving play-by-plays, which I only got away with because I was homeschooled and my mom wasn't around - thank you. You were truly a part of who I was for many of my most formative years, and my heart is overflowing just thinking about how special this place was to me.
Merci beaucoup, my friends. Once upon a time, you made a little girl's life a whole lot better.
Well.
Next week would've been my high school graduation. Relevant to nothing, I know, but graduations are a time to look back on your childhood and remember where you came from, and I can't do that without thinking about this forum.
I think all of you guys who were here when I was active realized that I was young, but I'm not sure if you know just how young I was. But when I joined, I was an antisocial thirteen-year-old who had exactly two friends and whose entire life revolved around figure skating. I always think that I was lonely back then, but at the time, I didn't realize I was - maybe that's because I wasn't. I had this forum. I had good friends (@invisible spiral, @cheerknithanson - do y'all still exist? You were my first internet friends!), a place to talk about what I loved, somewhere where I was treated as an equal by adults. This forum was so much of who I was and it gave me so many gifts: a community to belong to, vital writing practice because I somewhat foolishly thought that if I was a good enough writer people would think I was an adult (uhhh...sorry, Sarah, no), and a truly intense love of and expertise in all things figure skating that I carry with me to this day.
GoldenSkate made what would have been a pretty lonely childhood so much richer and more joyful, and on the eve of my would-be graduation, I have to thank you all for that. No one asked for my biography, I know, and now that I'm eighteen I can't really get away with the childishness I often showed in the hallowed halls of this forum five years ago, but I wanted to let you all know how much you mean to me, even though I've sort of disappeared. I may have drifted away, but I will always call the skating world home (I'm even working on a novel about skating that I'm planning to self-publish by the end of the summer!), and I have you guys to thank for that.
So, to everyone who befriended me; to everyone who took on the herculean task of keeping this forum up and running; to everyone who contributed to the lively discussions that made me so happy as a teen - thank you. To the skaters I looked up to - thank you. To those who helped me make memories, from the hilarious threads of speculation (Crazy Predictions Thread = BEST childhood memory!) to the iconic programs to the small-fed skater love to the games we'd play in Le Cafe to the four people who'd be in the competition threads with me giving play-by-plays, which I only got away with because I was homeschooled and my mom wasn't around - thank you. You were truly a part of who I was for many of my most formative years, and my heart is overflowing just thinking about how special this place was to me.
Merci beaucoup, my friends. Once upon a time, you made a little girl's life a whole lot better.