The Skating Master

Imagine a 4-year-old girl started Learning how to skate, but an older meaner girl starts making fun of her and making her feel weak and less of herself. Hi, I am Avishi Bagga, and this is the story of my achievement as a skater.

When I started learning skating, then an older girl, told me that I would never be able to win even a single medal, because I sucked at it then. She whispered to me every day ‘you suck, just stop learning, you will never get to the next level, you will always be stuck here, so if you want to quit, do it now or just waste your time and money.’

At first, I thought that what she was saying, might be true, and I asked my trainer and Mumma about it. They both had the same answer, do not listen to her and keep practising, you will get there, and remember to do this for yourself and not for anyone else.

I thought about it long and hard. Since I was young and facing this issue, I couldn’t do much about it, but I remembered my mum and coach’s words and kept practising. I fell a few times and soon got better.

Since she thought she had mastered skating, she wouldn’t come to practice and not even compete.

The coach worked hard with me, and after a few years when I was 6 years old, I went to my first competition. Even though I had practised a lot, I still lost. The older girl said that ‘I told you so, you can quit now.’ I cried for a long time. Then I decided that in the next competition failure wasn’t an option.

I worked harder this time and scored 2nd place after a few months. For my first win, we celebrated, danced, sang, and that night went by without us knowing

The next day, when I went to practice, my coach congratulated me, on the win and said, ‘next time we will work harder and make you a master.

I worked harder and felt more confident than weak. Then after a few months of practising, I had another competition, in 2017, I won my first gold medal. That day my coach upgraded me to the next level.

The gold medal shined on my neck like a star in the night sky, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I felt proud of myself, but something in me told me that there was something else for me to achieve more than this. I asked my coach and he said, that, the older girl wasn’t coming to practice, as she was very overconfident and the last thing was to beat her.

After a few months when I was 9 in 2020, before the pandemic, we raced, since she hadn’t practised, she won the first round, but because of her overconfidence, she fell in the 2nd round, making me win that round, during the 3rd round she slipped and fell again, making me win.

This time, I felt the satisfaction run through my body. I couldn’t believe it, I had won. She cried and did apologize after losing, to a child who was 3 years younger than her.

My story talks about not listening to others, and not paying attention to haters. Focus on your work, do not feel disheartened, Whatever you believe you can achieve.

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