Triumph on the Ice

Tonight was the second to last class for my Gamma/Delta ice skating and that meant it was the day for testing. I was nervous, especially after having faltered badly during midterms. The Gamma/Delta class is weird because it's two classes. Two of us (including me) are in Gamma, the other two are ahead of us in Delta. There were a lot of things to go through and Miss ML wasn't wasting any time in getting us ready to go. We did one thing after another. I was really nervous, but ML kept reminding me to take it slow. She said she knew I had speed, but she was more interested in control at this point. I told her I tend to have the same problem in tennis: trying to hit the ball hard instead of placing it. I was pretty nervous but tried to just do my thing. Unlike tennis, where tentativeness ruins my game, taking things slow seem to be beneficial. We finished up and the class was over. ML took us aside and went through everyone. It seemed like my fellow Gamma was moving to Delta, and my fellow Deltas had some issues and were staying Deltas. I, on the other hand, was told that I could skip Delta and go directly to Freestyle 1!
It's just ice skating, but I might have well be crowned Miss America. I was beaming inside and trying to play it cool, especially after having been able to recover after I'd done so badly at midterms. ML even told me I had potential. I think part of what helped me was what she had noticed last week: it may not be pretty, but I'm willing to try whatever it is she tells me to do. Part of me still doesn't believe it. Part of me wonders if I was lucky, or that ML was just being nice. But whatever, I know that I've gotten a lot better over the past few months and it's so exciting to have it noticed.