Supporting Our Own "Great One"

Story from Michael Southern

My story is less about receiving support, but rather of trying to give it.  Our 6-year old daughter is determined that she is going to be a hockey player.  I have no idea where this comes from, since I don’t play hockey and I don’t think we’ve ever watched hockey on TV.  I don’t recall having seen Cinderella trying to elbow the Wicked Stepmother in the corner, but somewhere she decided skating was easy, and thus hockey was a cinch!

Last year, we signed her up for the CanSkate program, and I think she stepped onto the ice for the first time assuming that she’d be the next Great One.  She was not.  My wife and I sat up in the stands, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  In the first 50 feet, she likely fell with every step.  If it is possible, she fell more than once with each step.  After that first hour, during which she spent as much time sitting and crawling on the ice as she did standing on it, the smile never left her face. 

As the lessons continued, a new part of our weekly skating ritual came after her lesson when we would stay to watch the first period of the teenage boys and girls games that followed.  We never knew what the teams names were, but it didn’t matter.  She always had fun coming up with her own names.  One week it was the Cardinals against the Blue Jays; the next it was the Skunks against the Bumble Bees.  We had fun cheering no matter who scored, and she was learning by watching and we were having fun together.

For the next several months we were back in the arena every Friday evening.  No matter how tired we all were at the end of the week it was something we looked forward to and by the end of the year, she was zipping (though I can’t really say gliding) around the rink.  It won’t be long and I imagine she’ll want to take the next step from just skating lessons to being on a hockey team of her own.  I wonder if it will be the Cardinals or the Bumble Bees?

Michael is a Suncor Employee.

Photo Source: istockphoto