JULIA GOUSSEVA
Published in Tucson Citizen
Most of my American friends assume I can play chess and ice-skate. After all, haven’t Russian figure skaters won lots of medals? Wasn’t Garry Kasparov the world’s youngest chess champion?
Yes, they have. Yes, he was. Me - that’s another matter.
Growing up in Russia, I always loved watching ice-skating competitions on TV, but my own attempts to ice-skate inevitably resulted in me sliding on the ice on the body part to which no skates could be attached.
The only two-loop maneuver I could perform involved tying my scarf.
By fourth grade, I gave up on trying to learn to ice-skate.
I moved to Tucson in 1993 as an adult, and I felt protected - by my age, Arizona’s heat and the apparent lack of ice - from the humiliation of skating.
When my son Alex reached kindergarten age, I found that one of the main social activities in Tucson elementary schools is roller-skating.
What’s a mother to do? I registered us both for group roller-skating lessons.