Before last year, I was terrified of skating. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because I just never tried. And last year, I turned nineteen years old. Before then, I never learned. I had been on ice skates before but never had the gall or courage to leave my parents’ side. I wasn’t timid as a child, but I learned some basic things pretty late in the game. Learned to ride a bike pretty late, too. Had training wheels for an inordinate amount of time. But anyway, back to skating.

I learned to skate at the Geneva Recreation Complex in March 2015. At this point, I had matriculated into Hobart and William Smith Colleges and had already declared my major. But hey, nobody’s perfect. My friends Drew, Chris, and Anthony brought me (mostly because they wanted to skate themselves) but regardless, I tagged along.

I had no real plan for how I was going to pull this whole thing off. So I decided to level with my friends and tell them, no, I had never done this before, and yes, I was rather nervous. The only plan I had was that I had no plan. And that’s how I was going to do it. Not to have things overly concerted and just pay the discounted student rate to rent skates and simply go for it. I figured that since I had never gotten the chance as an adult to skate before, now, in front of my friends, would be the best time.

You see, many of you will understand my outlook on this process, others will not. But to understand this, you would have to understand the type of person I am. With some things, I’m very cautious. Without others, not at all. Crossing the street, I’m very cautious. Learning how to skate? Not at all. What’s the worst that could happen? I’d fall a few times and get a few hip bruises. So what, who cares? I like trying new things and especially when I try to learn new things, like skills, the best way for me to learn is to actually do it. I don’t want a classroom lesson on skating or skiing. I want to be put on the ice or the slope and go for it.

When put in the situation, yes, I’ll drive a Lamborghini in London (true story, for another time) yes, I’ll go ask out that pretty girl that I don’t know (what could happen, she says no? Big deal).

So with this kind of stuff, I like to go for it and have little to no inhibitions. But with the simple, and almost mindless stuff, like crossing the street, I’m overly cautious. My eyes dart around like busy bees. Skating for the first time? Eh, I’ll give it a go and see what happens.