Spin Move!

This story actually starts a little over a year ago.  It was a Monday night B52s practice and Pippy Longstalker had just introduced the spin move.  It was late, I was tired and the practice was poorly attended.  I can't exactly remember the drill we practiced but I do remember thinking to myself, "yeah.  I could do this."  Pippy encouraged us to try it out in a scrimmage even if we fell.  Even if we had to do it for no reason around one of our own blockers.
But I didn't try it out.  I thought about it really hard.  I thought about when might be a good time to spin when I was scrimmaging but my feet just didn't ever follow through.  I thought about it for a year while other skills and knowledge of the game solidified. Then this fall at the clinic hosted by Carmen Getsome Smarty Pants made the observation that the transitions she was seeing were sub par as compared to the skills of the group as a whole.  I hate being sub par, so since then I've been spending my Saturday nights scooting around Southgate Roller Rink spinning and plowing and not much else.
Fast forward to last Saturday.  We were halfway through a 20 minute exposition bout with the Hulas and losing by about 25 points.  I was set to block every other jam all night with the possibility of acting as a backup jammer if we had established an early lead so you can imagine my surprise when my bench coach said "we're putting you into a 3 jammer rotation."
"You want me to jam?"
"Yes"
"3 jammers in our line?"
"No.  You, Babe and Nellie."
"Three jammers for the team?"
"Yes."
I have only ever jammed once in a bout before so did I experience some doubt?  Yes.  Did I have to take 10 seconds to clear my mind?  Totally.  But I would be lying if I didn't say that the tiny optimist who lives in the back of my head didn't suddenly rush forward and scream into my subconscious:  I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT MY ENTIRE LIFE!
And so I jammed.  Sometimes is was great, sometimes I got stuck in the pack, one time the other team scored 20 points on me and I can't say I'm too happy about that.  But I stayed clean and calm, learned from my mistakes and when the opportunity presented itself I didn't think about that spin move.  I didn't think at all.  I just did it.
So is this entire post just a way for me to stoke my own ego?  Maybe a little.  But I wanted to be able to write this down so that some day in the future I can remember what happened and why.  I wanted to take a moment to look back at where I was when I got back on skates this fall and see just how far pain free skating, mental focus and positivity have really taken me.  2014 is going to rock!
<posted on 12.10.13>