Jay Goldstein
Creative Writing
9/17/09
“Oh my god, their twins. How old are they?” My sister and I must have heard relatives, family friends, acquaintances, and others say this statement hundreds of times over the years. My older sister Marlo has always been my leader during my younger years, guiding me through life’s young challenges. She started playing soccer, I started playing soccer. So when she started skateboarding I started Skateboarding.
Since that day in the fall of my fifth grade year, skateboarding has been my thing. Let’s not forget about baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, and plenty of other sports that came before my true ambition. Skateboarding was the first sport I played where whistles weren’t blowing, coaches weren’t yelling, and most of all there was only one person that I could let down, myself.
And seven years later, I’m the player I always wanted to be when playing those previous sports, many years ago. I wanted to be that player who hit the game winning homerun or overtime goal; I wanted to be the hero. Now I can officially say I am that hero, for myself that is, with skateboard competitions giving me the confidence and joy that I wanted to achieve so many years ago, but now without any pressure from others.
An average day at the skate park in the summer would probably span from 12:30 until most of the time whenever the sun went down. There were no game clocks, no coaches yelling in my ear, no crowds screaming, there was just me.
Thinking of it now, I never wanted to be that home run game winner kid, if the game was on the line I dreaded stepping up to the plate, all the pressure. In skateboarding there is no pressure, no one is depending on you. I can only blame myself for not landing a trick. I don’t like having to depend on other people or vise versa.
“Jay look what Mom got me,” said Marlo.
These distinct words were the beginning to my love affair with skateboarding. What my sister first started that day, was skateboarding, and as always I started soon there after.
“In first place winner of the 15-18 age group we have Jay Goldstein.”
These distinct words were greatly appreciated for all the sweat and time I put into not only that competition, but also skateboarding. And sure enough out in the crowd was my sister Marlo, the person who showed me the way. Even though she didn’t have the honor of winning the contest I still in a way looked up to her for all she had done and still does.
From the time of the early days in the drive way with my older sister, to me at the skate park and my sister studying in her room for school. I began to understand that my sister was in a way no longer my “coach,” she had gotten me to this point, I was old enough to now separate and be my own person.
And be my own person was what I became, taking my trick level to a whole new scale:
Blunt Fakie
5-0 Fakie
Frontside Nosegrind
Switch 5-0 Fakie
Switch Backside Nosegrind
And many others, etc…..
Not only had I developed my trick difficulty, but also a new understood sense of what Skateboarding has done for me. I went from worrying about every passing day and the struggles-anxiety of school, to not carrying about the little things. Skateboarding is my equalizer, regardless of how bad my day may have been I become relaxed with my skateboard in hand. My older sister had been my leader-coach, she introduced me to skateboarding, and now skateboarding is my leader-coach.
