Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Shoved to Them

Home
Catholic
To Live and Ride in LA

To Live and Ride in LA

Last updated on: July 30, 2015 at 3:44 pm by Rebecca Frech

To Live and Ride in LA 2015-07-30T15:44:42-05:00 Rebecca Frech

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Last Saturday, Ella competed in the Life Goes On skating competition in Venice Beach, California. It was her first time to compete at the professional level in WCMX, wheelchair skating. She was the youngest competitor by far, and since WCMX doesn’t segregate contests by age, sex, or physical ability; that meant that she was up against adult men and women. You can either hang, or you can’t. I love that.

The other competitors are familiar names and faces to us now.

Katherine

Christiaan

Jerry

Quinn

Aaron

and now the Who’s Who lineup includes

Ella

She did amazing!

That’s not really big enough…

She did

Ah-maze-ing!!!!!!

I think we might need more exclamation points up there.

The day didn’t start off that way. As the crowd grew from a few stragglers to well over 500 people (I’m guesstimating on what I could see), her social anxiety took over and my brave, tough girl started crying. “I wish we hadn’t come all this way,” she whispered as tears streaked down her cheeks. “Then, we could just go home and no one would be disappointed.”

I wiped her cheeks and hugged her. I’ve seen this before, and sometimes it’s too big of a hill for her to climb. She was starting to hyperventilate when one of the other skaters noticed her crying, and came over to talk down her nerves. One by one, the other skaters stopped by and chatted with her, helping to keep her calm until the announcer called her name. (Where else would that happen in professional sports?)

She swiped her cheeks and raced to her starting position.

She had the whole skate park to herself for anything she wanted to do. She popped a wheelie on top of a ramp, raised her right hand in the three-fingered Hunger Games salute, and dropped down the ramp into the snake run. She swooped around the curves and charged over the valleys, a little boost out of the small bowl and then it was down the stairs…

where she fell forward onto her hands.

The crowd gasped, but she pushed herself back onto her wheels and kept going.

A swoop around, a drop off a high box, before straight drop down into a deep bowl where she flashed a peace sign to the crowd.

She had finished and not died on the spot. We watched the last few runs and then went in search of some ice cold lemonade to celebrate her non-demise.

We thought our day was essentially over except for a pizza and pool party with her sponsor that evening.

We were wrong.

Life Rolls On didn’t place skaters in the traditional 1st, 2nd, 3rd. They chose instead to give out awards for riding the rail, “Best Trick,” and “Balls to the Wall.”

Which is what Ella won -“Balls to the Wall” – because the judges felt that she’d gone harder than any of the other competitors. Which put her in the money, won her this sweet award

and got her interviewed by the BBC

and then she rested

Clean shirt and a spot of shade

Photo credits – pro pics are from the pros themselves.

Dropping in by Cat Gregory with permission

Ella on stairs by Emily Scher with permission

Ella by Michael Berns with permission

all others are my own

Uncategorized

Ella

WCMX

Previous Post

July 28, 2015

What happened when I went looking for my people

Next Post

August 2, 2015 Seeing Our Failings Through the Tears of a Stranger

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Paul say is the greatest of faith, hope, and love?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Love Faith Hope Grace