This is a little long, so please bear with me, there is a point, I promise.

Seriously. Amazing stuff has been done by people older than the average person for doing that thing. Marjorie Newlin. is definitely one of my heroes. 87 year old body builder. Started when she was 72. She couldn’t carry her kitty litter bags up the stairs so she went and got a personal trainer. At first they didn’t take her seriously, but she worked so hard and made such progress she was competing within 2 years.

When I was a little girl, I used to watch figure skaters and ice dancers on TV. I wanted to be those girls. It was the only dream I was told I couldn’t do. And in fact when asked what I wanted to be as a kid, I don’t even bring that one up usually. See I’m from southern TN, and when you say “ice skating” here, people go “huh?” Like they’re confused on the entire concept of blades on ice.

When I was a little girl I said I wanted to figure skate. But I was already in my teens. (Which is already considered too late to start. But come on, not every little girl wants to be in the olympics, some people just want to be on the ice and perform and compete period. Just like not everybody who wants to be a pilot wants to be a fighter pilot.) My mother said you had to start out really young and besides there were no skating rinks anywhere near us. This was rather deflating.

Then yesterday the whole world opened up. I’ve started rollerblading again. (Dug out my rollerblades, I’m completely addicted) and I was looking for places out where we’re moving to in Arizona to rollerblade. Parks, skating rinks, whatever. When I googled skating rinks in the area I found ICE SKATING rinks. A friggin ton of them.

And as I dug around I found figure skating and ice dancing lessons for adults. So I thought…this is cool. I could learn to do this for fun. But then I found out…I could learn to do this and compete. There are adult national figure skating competitions and champtionships sponsored by US Figure Skating There is an international competition for adult figure skaters run by ISU. Major competitions began being held in 1995 for adult competitors by USFS, and the ISU international competitions are only a few years old. This is a new and growing segment of the sport of figure skating and it’s kickass exciting to me.

You must be at least 21 years old to compete in USFS sanctioned events and there is no max age, I believe 81 so far is their oldest competitor. Though you can compete at certain events at nationals without first qualifying (besides tests you have to pass to be allowed to compete on that level), in other parts of the nationals, the championships, you have to have placed in the top 4 of sectionals championships. (basically regionals. And I believe there are 4 regions) They do age categories for competitions because what your average 65 year old can do isn’t exactly the same as what you’re average 25 year old can do on the ice. In ISU you must be between the ages of 28 and 71 to compete.

USFS has this new thing called ice theatre competition. VERY theatric. People can compete as singles, pairs or teams. And you have to be at least 21. It looks fabulous.

Most people who compete in adult figure skating started figure skating AS adults. For many we’re talking 30’s and 40’s just starting out. Judging standards are slightly different in USFS for adult competitions because of physical limitations of starting so late. For some reason starting when you’re 5 or 6 makes it possible to be able to do triple jumps, but so far only one adult figure skating competitor has done a triple in an adult championship competition. Though I think more will follow. Before anything really difficult is accomplished by a human being it’s called “impossible” until someone does it, then more people start to be able to do it. So much of what you can do is in your head.

And just to show you an example of what adult figure skaters can accomplish, here’s a video of Hayley Skousen at one of the smaller adult competitions called “Skate San Francisco.” I think she’s fabulous. Now Hayley is 22 now, she was 21 at the time of this video, so she’s young for an adult competitor, she’s probably been doing this at least since her early teens, maybe before. But she’s competing in the “masters” section, which means the really freaking hardcore competitors. Most adults who start late get to “gold” competition. Though if they can accomplish double jumps they can get to masters. They just have to test for it and pass.

Here is another adult skater, Jodie Maier at the 2004 Adult Nationals. She’s 51 now (and competed this year as well). I think she’s a good skater, but I don’t like her choreography and musical choices as much. Hayley has a watchability that you don’t care what technical moves she’s doing or isn’t doing. She’s just got a certain presence.

Ice dancing has fewer limitations in what is possible to learn as an adult because there are no required jumps in ice dancing. It still requires a huge amount of technical proficiency, skating ability and artistic intepretation. As well as hitting your beats. Figure Skating is much more forgiving on rhythm and beat hitting, since it’s more about technical proficiency.

So anyway this is a really long-winded way of saying, whatever your dream is…there is a way you can do it. People who want to dance, ballerina careers end at 25? So? Ever hear of vegas? Or bellydance? Or apparently ice dancing. Truly, on the ice pretty much just people with a scope lens can tell how old you are. I watched a youtube video of a fantastic figure skater in her fifties, who I swear to God I thought she was about 24 until it listed her age. There are opportunities for all ages of people to find ways to follow their dreams.

Considering that there really is no age cap on writing, I think we all need to chill on this “falling behind” “ZOMG look how old I am” thing. Especially since a vast majority of first time published authors are at least in their thirties. And no one who reads a good book cares how old the author is. In fact, if she’s 80, publishing for the first time she gets tons of news coverage. So whee for publicity.

I guess I just feel like when some girl decides she wants to figure skate at 40, and then goes on and actually DOES it, we writers need to stop our bitching.