Extracurriculars in College: Roller Figure Skating
Since I was 9 years old I have competed in roller figure skating. If you've ever happened to catch a glimpse of ice figure skating on tv, whether it's during the winter olympics or just an ice show, that's the exact same thing I do- only roller figure skating is done on wheels and on a wooden floor. We do all the jumps and spins and wear the dresses and skate to music. I went to my first competition in Chicago when I was 9 and it has just blossomed from there. Since roller skating and competing have been such a fixture in my life, I have never had any intentions of giving it up or even taking a break.
It has required a lot of time and dedication but it is extremely important to me and therefore when I graduated high school, there was no thought to stop skating. So when I decided to pursue college, I needed to figure out how to incorporate roller figure skating as an extracurricular in college.
Equally as important to me was a college education and when I started my freshman year at IUPUI that fall semester after I graduated high school, I knew that I was going to need to be disciplined and stay on top of time management.
It was not necessarily easy at any time to stay competitive in roller skating while taking college classes full time every semester, but for me, having the outlet of this extracurricular activity, honestly helped keep me focused on what was most important to me both in and out of school and it was definitely a healthy outlet- both mentally and physically- for my entire college career. Prioritizing my time around my practice schedule was at times challenging, but this was also something that I knew would be helpful to my future career after college.