I took group lessons at a rink near my home. We first had to learn how to stand up on the ice wearing skates. Eventually we learned to move forward, but soon found out that it was not that easy to stop! So that was our next important lesson.
My life has been a whirlwind since the '94 Olympics.
I worked also, doing things such as our paper route and, later on, waitressing.
People would ask me why I was doing what I was doing - but I always told them that I just loved to skate. There was no other explanation.
Falling down became second nature and it really didn't bother me.
It wasn't always easy getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning to go to the rink. Sometimes I wanted to just go back to sleep.
