ST. LOUIS — Natalia Parr could be going into any place, but on the ice is where she wants to be.
“Every week I try to get in a skate,” said Parr.
She began expressing herself this way about 10 years ago when she was 7, after watching the Olympic figure skating competition.
“Watching the girls in their pretty dresses skating around, and I thought it was so beautiful and graceful. And so I begged my parents to let me take lessons,” recalled Parr.
Learning the movements meant practice sessions long before the sun would come up. But the determination to make the grade on the ice drove her.
“It’s easy when you love it and when you're dedicated to it and when you want to get better,” she said.
Parr got good enough to compete, fueling her fire even more.
“It gave you that motivation to, you know, you really have to get this and you really have to nail it.”
But not nailing it taught her a valuable lesson for life: how to deal with failure.
While her competitive days were a long time ago, Parr continues to skate with the same vigor. She’s still pushing her limits and spinning, even if she doesn’t know where she is on the ice.
“You just kind of learn how to deal with it and learn to, I guess, move your way around while being dizzy,” she said.
Parr wants to move in a way that motivates the next generation of figure skaters.
“It’s always the sweetest thing when I get young girls coming up to me and asking me questions,” Parr said.
And for anyone who may ask her why she still comes to the rink, the answer is easy.
“Because I love it.”