YOU'RE MY INSPIRATION!

An adult skater comes up to me on public and says, "You're my inspiration. I saw you skate and thought, 'If *she* can do it, *I* can do it!"

Different people have said almost the exact same wording to me.

Twice.

This is sort of the compliment that happens when a man says, "You sure dance good/hardly sweat much for a fat girl."

Maybe rinks should hire me to skate around at public to encourage adults to take Learn to Skate. I should have a sign on my back that says:

"Look, look!" they'll cry. "That woman is as old as my grandmother and SHE CAN SKATE! I need to learn how to skate. Maybe she has brochures!"

And not only do I skate, I dance pretty good for a fat girl (and hardly sweat at all)!

But to tell you the truth, almost every time  I skate on public someone comes up to me to talk about skating. I think it's because I'm small and older and safe looking. The freestyle girls in the middle usually usually won't give people the time of day, or they're so fast they intimidate the ice tourist.  I on the other hand look like a grandmother. More than once I'd wished I had  brochures in my pockets. Usually though I tell them to ask their parents to sign them up for skating lessons, and that it's cheap.

 Still, that backhanded compliment in the words, "If *she* can skate, *I* can skate," rankles a bit. It's hard to keep my face under control

I feel like this:

But all they see is this!