For this year’s Winter Explorers End of Season Celebration, trip we decided to go take the youth ice skating at the Ralph Walker Ice Rink. Now, I am from a tropical island and had never been ice skating before. I was nervous and I thought to myself, “I will stay on the side and take pictures.”
Then I considered how part of my work is about pushing young people to try new things and to take risks and experiment. So I decided to put my skates on and hit the ice with youth, although I was worried that they would make fun of me because I couldn’t skate. That was a risk I was willing to take.
I picked up my crate which helped me balanced on the ice, still wondering if youth would tease me. Then Tinaejah and Shania, two Stewards in the Winter program, came over to where I was standing and said “It’s okay, we’ll help you”. I said yes show me how you guys do this!”
They began teaching me how to push and glide with skates as I struggled along with my crate, going around and around the rink. After falling a number of times, I got the hand of moving forward, all thanks to Tinaejah and Shania who kept on coming back to check on me, and to teach and encourage me. It was amazing to see how the roles had shifted in this scenario. The young people displayed kindness and compassion towards me that was encouraging to me, and reinforced how positive our youth can be.
