“It’s going well, don’t give up! »
Posted yesterday at 11:00 a.m.
A lady overtakes me as I plod along. She smiles at me and encourages me before speeding off. Skiing seems so easy for her… Maybe one day it will be for me too.
In the meantime, I’m learning as best I can to cross-country ski from the height of my 33 years. Last summer, I took up skateboarding. The previous three summers on the bike. Next goal: swimming and skating.
Because no, I didn’t learn to do any of that as a child. I learned a lot of other things (I could recite poetry and fail a lot of adults at Scrabble), it’s just that sports weren’t a family priority. My father was ill; my mother, alone, worked too much to have the luxury of having fun; and we didn’t have the necessary means to indulge in hobbies that require equipment, lessons, season tickets or transportation.
In short, it was only at the dawn of my thirties that I decided to learn to play outside. Since then, I have discovered the splendours of physical activity and the limits of my ego. I’m scared for nothing, I fall often, I hurt myself on occasion and I laugh a lot.
When I get discouraged, I remind myself that I am not alone in this situation. I then let myself be inspired by the journalist Vanessa Destiné, who also only started cycling, skiing and skating as an adult…
Vanessa spent her childhood playing in alleyways teeming with young people who shared the realities of immigration.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Vanessa Destiné, journalist
We didn’t have the same relationship to nature. My parents didn’t come to Canada to sleep in the woods, you know? They came to Canada to live the American dream and have two cars, not to buy a bike.
Vanessa Destiné, journalist
It was only when Vanessa joined a private school in Montreal – a much more affluent and homogeneous environment – that she felt the weight of the comparison.
“The others had a family cabin and they received snowboards as gifts. There’s a language that comes with that and you’re left out of the conversation. »
With exclusion, shame.
In secondary two, I dared to enroll in a snow class. I too wanted to ski with my friends. Obviously, I had no equipment. I could rent the skis, but not the clothes. So my dad borrowed a girlfriend’s outfit, straight out of the 1980s. A neon purple one-piece. My stomach still tightens when I think of the teasing that some students threw at me, this time when I wanted to try skiing. To say that today, this set is back in fashion…
Vanessa Destiné, for her part, was marked by the physical education classes during which swimming was on the exam. She found herself in a corner of the pool, with a few other black students who had not learned to swim, while the rest of the class was doing lengths.
“These are very trying times. People must be aware of their privileges even in sports. It’s not for lack of curiosity or laziness if we don’t know how to do it! It’s because we come from different economic or cultural backgrounds. »
And we should never be ashamed of taming a sport that eluded us when we were children.
“It feels like everyone knows how to do it, except us. It’s wrong ! »
Kim Boisseau-Chin is a ski instructor and head trainer at the Atrium Le 1000 ice rink. She confirms to me that many adults are unaware of how to practice popular hobbies. For proof: year after year, there is a waiting list to access its courses.
The motivations of the students are varied. Many of them have recently arrived in Quebec and want to integrate. Others want to teach their child a sport they didn’t have the luxury of learning at their age, and some are just looking to have fun.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Kim Boisseau Chin
I had an 80 year old student. She was a very active woman who had never learned to skate! I also coached a 70-year-old man who had always dreamed of doing figure skating… There is no age to get started.
Kim Boisseau-Chin, ski instructor and head trainer at the Atrium Le 1000 skating rink
There is no age, it’s true… But there is fear.
As a child, we don’t think too much about the consequences of a fall. As an adult, I think about it like a tabarouette with teeth that I risk losing.
“I mourned because of fear, Vanessa Destiné told me. I no longer have the temerity of childhood! Anxiety comes on very quickly and I don’t want to have white hair just because I’m thinking of doing a wakeboarding session. »
This anxiety can come from an activity that is too strenuous, but also from social pressure. Even today, the gaze of others can destabilize the journalist. When she started skating last winter, she didn’t dare practice during the day. She preferred to skate in the evening, when the ice was less crowded.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
In her early days on skates, Vanessa Destiné preferred to exercise in the evening to avoid stares.
The good news now is that every time Vanessa fell, someone helped her up. In fact, we share the same observation: people are happy to welcome us to their playground. As clumsy as we are.
Since I learned to play popular sports, I have been encouraged out loud. Passers-by applaud me without irony when they see me proudly raise my arms to the sky because I managed to take a curve. They smile at me, they advise me. I sometimes feel like a child who is told “bravo” for the slightest nonsense, but I feel supported.
And, above all, I feel that the world belongs to me a little more.
There’s no age to learn how to fall, get up, have fun.