THE LAST CHANCE by Kina

THE LAST CHANCE

What’s the thing that makes you happy all the time and blows out your stress? When I was in Korea, speed skating was that sort of thing that made me feel happy all the time. I was glad to speed skate because it was the only time that I could give some rest for my brain to relax like a bear during the winter sleep. As soon as I stepped into the ice rink, I let my brain rest and followed my instincts. Sports might need the use of your brain but sometimes it’s better to follow your instincts. For example, people speed skate really fast. They are human and can make mistakes and fall down. Due to their speed when they fall down, they could slide into you. In that situation, if you tried to use your head and measure the degree that the person would come into you, eventually you would crash. So sometimes, it’s better to switch off your brain and follow your instincts. I also liked the feeling when the icy cold air passed through me really fast. It felt fresh but my nose hurt a bit because it was freezing cold.

I started speed skating when I was in about 2nd grade. I started a lot later than usual kids who speed skate, so I had a harder time than the other skaters with the age of 7~9. To speed skate, you need to be in the perfect squat posture but you must bend your waist. It MUST be perfect. For it to be perfect, you need a lot of flexibility in your waist and power in your thigh. I endeavored hard with those two parts. I especially strived my best with the flexibility. When I got used to it, my capacity of speed skating improved rapidly. I guess it was because I was flexible enough to speed skate due to the practices and I could understand what the instructor asked me to change. The other members were little kids, so they had some problems with understanding. For example, the teacher asked them to put their weight on their butt, so their butt went down, but they couldn’t understand it. They all looked at the instructor with a silly face.

I made such fast progress, so I moved to the advanced level but not the master one. I practiced hard there. Sometimes, I went to the competitions too. I usually got 3rd place. However, after my 5th competition, I realized how to control myself before the competition to jump over that 3rd place wall. It was like a quirk of fate because when I was practicing for my 6th competition, I heard terrible news. My mom told me this would be my last competition. I was in panic. Thus, I tried harder to get rid of that thought. It was too hard. Later on, I changed my mind. I decided to keep that in my mind so I could remind myself and practice harder to finalize with the first place medal.

It was the day that I had my last competition. I was so nervous that I ran up and down the staircases. I ran the hallway. I did squats several times.

I was sweating like a pig. I watched the clock and I had about 15 minutes left before my competition. My heart was beating so hard as if a thousand elephants were in my heart and dancing. I speeded up to the waiting room and quickly put my skates on. The woman who called out the names, to tell it’s your turn, called my name. I rushed to her. She gave me a white cotton cover for my helmet. She gave different colored helmets to each person so people could identify who they were.

BOOM! With a loud gun sound, the race started. My starting was awesome. It was because of the one that I ran the staircases before the race. My legs were already stretched and familiar with that icy-cold temperature because I was running around the ice rink before the race. Therefore until the 2nd round I was in 1st place. Nevertheless on the last lap, I was so accelerated that I couldn't overcome the centrifugal force. Thus, when I went around the last corner, I went a bit outside of the corner. At that time, the girl who was skating right behind me speeded up to beat me. Then she went to the finishing line faster than me. I was so furious that moment but when I came out of the rink my mom told me “good job Kina!! See? You can do this!! You got 3rd places before but on this time, you got 2nd place which was really close to the 1st place.” Her compliment made a slight smile on my lips. Then I told my mom that when I come back to Korea and go to the college, I will go into the speed skating club and get 1st place