Learn to ice skate.

“When I first stood on the ice in my skates, I had no stability. Your deepest urge is to keep both feet in contact with the surface, but to move forward on skates you have to do precisely the opposite. Vasaparken doesn’t have any walls or railings to cling on to. As soon as I was out on the ice, I was alone, stranded in a void. I hadn’t felt physical fear like that in a long time, the fear of doing something that my body didn’t know how to react to.”

“I’m 25 and just had my first ever Learn to Skate class. Today was literally the first time I’ve ever worn ice skates or been on an ice rink. During class, our instructor had us get on the ice and practice getting up without using the boards, but I couldn’t do it. I was in rental skates that don’t have toepicks, and I couldn’t get my back foot grounded enough to get the leverage. I didn’t fall during during the rest of the lesson, but I did have to get off the ice for a minute to get water because I started panicking when I couldn’t get up.”

“Isn’t it embarrassing when you see 5-6 years old children skating around with confidence and freedom and you are hardly walking even with the support of railings? Even having that support I fell twice, but once again I want to thank my friends who fell too because it made me feel better. There was an old man who even suggested us to use those penguins for support which were meant to be for kids. We all laughed so hard at it.”