Today is the start of the Junior Short Dance at the 2016 Eastern Sectional Figure Skating Championships. Today my students should be on the ice, warming up their elements, adjusting their skate tape, and nervously sipping their water bottles. I should be there too- obsessively checking that I have their back up CDs, taking secret release breaths, and trying to find my 6th cup of coffee before noon. But we aren’t there. We are no longer what we used to be. It breaks my heart. But the show must go on.

It’s not about the skating though. To me, these students have been like children to me- I have cried with them, for them, and because of them. We have traveled together, laughed together, and argued together. We have made beautiful moments and triumphed over hardships. We have all learned how to communicate better, respect one another, and work alongside each other towards our common goal. We have become our own little family, and now we have fallen apart. It’s the end of an era.

Change is so difficult to cope with. So. Difficult. We try to manage our own change as we adjust accordingly to the change in others. We can’t predict how or where our changes will take us. We don’t know if others will follow or fall behind. Perhaps we will each take our own course and arrive at the same place. Other times we will find we’ve reached the end of our path alone. Maybe we hit a detour and are forced to move along a new path; maybe we hit a roadblock and must discover our own way out.

Whatever changes come for my students, I hope they greet them with open minds, flexibility and perseverance. I hope they will look back on their skating fondly and leave with wonderful memories, loyal friends, and some damn good twizzles.

WTF happens when it's all over?!