#arahnaet

[harocat]

First of all, how are you? Yes, the main question honestly. I hope you had a nice New Year celebration. Yet another question, If this is a propriate one, how did your journey in watching figure skating begin?  Sorry for the curiosity, I’m just wondering how something passionate started.

And thank you.

I could say a million, million words and not be able to wrap them into the level of gratitude I feel towards the existence of your blog. I started, of course, with Yuuri (I love so much how good of a person he remains, despite all the hardships he encounters, so many significant details, but that's what Yuuri is all about: what you can't put into words, he always chooses action over expression which requires more attention, it's beyond me how many people can simply overlook that, and I think I could talk about it for a very long time), then I clung to all the clear and wonderful ideas about figure skating (special thank you for my sweet meow meow Wakaba Higuchi and dearest Satoko Miyahara), but beyond that I just felt comfortable staying here. I know this may sound awkward and perhaps too personal, but I really hope it doesn't unsettle you. The last little while has been hard for me (it's been going on longer than I realized) and it was good to know that I could go somewhere where I don't have to be afraid, where it would be safe to sit and just quietly think. Your perspective somehow softens my heart, sometimes it's hard for me to explain. I write in no way with the thought of burdening you, but with pure benevolence. I really hope that you know that we appreciate you very much. Thank you so much for your patience and dedication and lightness and seriousness. You don't have to read or respond to any of my words (only if you want to), I just hope you are well, and you are in good health. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, all the best, and peace of heart and soul.

Thank you for the lovely message. I'm really sorry it took me a while to reply. This was so sweet and I'm so glad my blog has been a place where you feel welcome and relieved. Seriously I almost teared up a bit reading this. And I hope things look up for you soon.

(Also your words about Yuuri are so nice. He really is the best boy ever.)

I hope you also had a great holiday season. Mine was nice. I went to a con over the weekend of NY, which was a new experience. I got a pair of roller skates which I haven't had a chance to try out yet because it's been too wet out. I could go to the skating rink, but I haven't roller skated since I was a teenager so I'd rather put them on the first time somewhere where no one will see me ahaha.

I got into skating when I was really young. I have vague memories of watching the whole Tonya Harding debacle play out, which definitely got me interested. I remember watching the Olympics that year on the tv in our basement. I only watched the women. Ladies has always been my favorite discipline. At the very beginning it was the only one I watched!

The next year my older brother gave me a poster of baby Michelle Kwan from his Sports Illustrated for Kids. I thought she looked super cool, because she was so young herself, so I started watching her competitions. The rest is basically history. I somehow became totally obsessed with her and it developed into a childhood hyper fixation. I recorded all of her competitions and by the early 2000s I had a literal massive box of recorded skating competitions (not just hers). Somewhere it still exists. I remember eventually I started taping over some of the competitions because I didn't want to buy new tapes, but I NEVER taped over one of Michelle's. I watched everything though; every pro competition (RIP cheesy pro comps), every ice show, etc. In the last half of the 90s and early 2000s, there was SO MUCH skating on tv in the US.

I went ice skating for the first time in when I was in elementary school, and my mom signed me up for lessons. I never completed the lessons because I stepped on the ice and within two minutes, I attempted a spin and broke my ankle. Kids are dumb. Once I was healed I did go back on the ice, and I skated a lot until high school. I did take lessons, but I was never super serious about it. I'd love to take it up again, but because of my ankles (ironically enough), I'd need to buy more expensive skates and I just haven't felt like investing in it. Hopefully the roller skates are a step toward that.

Michelle was such a constant in my childhood, because her career was quite long, that she really did leave an indelible mark on me. After she retired I kind of flitted in and out of the sport for some years. There were a couple skaters I pretty consistently followed, and some seasons I watched more competitions than others. So I was always a big fan, but sometimes I was more 'diehard' than other times.

I liked Davis and White and Mirai Nagasu, baby Yuzuru really caught my eye. I loved Tatsuki Machida and Shen/Zhao a lot. And Mao. ❤️

I always stayed up on being knowledgeable about the sport even if I wasn't committed to watching every competition. I've been watching consistently again since shortly after Sochi, but tbh until Yuri on Ice happened I didn't really talk about it much? I didn't know many people online who cared about skating, and I was well aware figure skating fandom was very vitriolic, so I pretty much refused to venture into it. I just watched it.

When YOI happened more of my regular online friends, people I followed, etc. started posting about skating so I started sharing my opinions more online as well. Also it was nice to come into a fandom already having knowledge about the subject matter ahahaha. That was new! TBH before YOI, in my head I'd plotted a figure skating AU for most of my fandoms. Now the AU was canon.