For years, I tried to leave figure skating behind, convinced that moving on meant forgetting. But stepping onto the ice as the president of the UMass Ice Skating Club forced me to confront the part of me I thought I had buried. When an unexpected tragedy shook the skating world, memories I had long suppressed came rushing back, making me question what skating truly meant to me.

Skating was my entire world, and when it stopped in a way I never saw coming, I was left to figure out who I was without it—not just my identity but my sense of self-worth.