When the Synchro Bubble Pops

by Hannah-Grace Enriquez

When my local rink closed in March, I was on the ice practicing for tryouts. My friend had rented the rink and let other skaters from DC EDGE, the team that I was trying out for, practice on it. There were maybe five or six of us there and all of us were practicing different connected drills. About 45 minutes into the session, the owner of the rink came out to the ice and told us the rink had been shut down. This meant that we would have to leave. 

I suspected that the rink would be shut down since so many other establishments had already closed, but I never suspected that it would shut down with me inside of it. Not only was I now out of school, since my school had been shut down two weeks before, but now I wasn’t able to skate. The few weeks of shut down turned into months and soon I could barely remember what it was like to do a crossover. 

When everything opened back up in the summer, it felt like the world was going back to normal. The threat of COVID-19 soon disappeared to thoughts of practices and competitions. Even though practices had to be disconnected and competitions were virtual, it was familiar enough to make everything else start to fall away. 

The longer I was on the ice the more normal everything felt. Soon, my team was able to connect and our programs started to come together. The talks of competitions resurfaced as measurements for dresses and ideas for hair started to be thrown about. We talked about plans for Porter during every practice and my team and I were anxiously waiting to film for it. 

This all changed when I got the email right after a Sunday practice, telling us that two people on the team tested positive for COVID. This meant that we all had to quarantine for two weeks, which came as a shock to me. With everything happening with the season, I seemingly forgot that there was an actual pandemic going on around me. 

After hearing the news, I was soon locked into my room. A lot of my teammates were allowed to quarantine with their families, but I could not. My younger brother has an autoimmune disease, so in order to ensure his health and safety, I stayed by myself for the entirety. 

Being alone was one of the hardest parts of my second quarantine. During the first quarantine, everyone was dealing with the same sort of situation. We all were in our own houses and we all had to deal with everything shutting down. However, for my self-quarantine, I was all alone. I watched teams on social media record their competition videos for Porter and show off their programs. I was able to watch the Finnish first qualification online, and while the programs and skates were stunning, it only made me miss being on the ice more. 

The loneliness I felt was only amplified by the “radio silence” from my team. Many of us were feeling a number of emotions, including frustration and anxiety, which made it difficult to talk to each other. The only communication I got from my team was to hear that another teammate of mine tested positive for the virus. I felt that the lack of communication was so impactful because my teammates were the only other people who knew what I was going through at that time. 

The first week of quarantine I was alone, frustrated, and worried for my teammates. Everything just seemed more the longer I was alone. Thankfully, this changed with the first team practice we had. 

Not wanting us to go without some type of practice, my coaches planned three virtual practices and two virtual workouts. That first virtual practice was the first time I saw and talked to my team in a week, and that week-long break was the longest since the season started. It felt like such a throwback to the beginning of the season when every practice was virtual. 

Seeing everyone, while not in person, made me remember even more how much I missed them. I think this was the same for everyone else as well. Soon after the first virtual practice, one of my teammates recommended a team meeting without the coaches. They said that this would allow us to talk without censoring ourselves in front of adults. 

This team talk was what made the rest of the quarantine bearable in my eyes. Our talk showed us that we all were feeling different things and that while we were upset about the situation, we were still a team. A team that could handle whatever the year would throw at us, and a team that would stick together through thick and thin. 

Many people in the skating community have had similar experiences. We have all struggled this year, directly or indirectly from COVID, but despite that, I think there is so much that we can learn from this year. Our competitions have been canceled, our rinks have been closed, and our seasons have been changed, but we are still able to skate. While there is so much negative in the world right now, we cannot turn away from all the positives. 

Using my experiences from this year, I have learned to cherish what I can. You never know what will happen in the future, so it’s important to learn to fully enjoy what you have in the present. Our lives may be different this year, but we can still cherish our teammates and our ability to do what we love: which is skate.