Today is National Get Up Day, a holiday created in 2017 by U.S. Figure Skating to commemorate the end of January (National Skating Month).
For those of us with wobbly ankles who only remain upright on the ice with the assistance of well-placed friends on either side of us, how does this impact us? Other than getting out of bed in the morning (√), what does #wegetup mean to us?
The mission statement is outlined as follows:
The Get Up® campaign was launched by U.S. Figure Skating in 2017 to help skaters and non-skaters alike to recognize the grit, passion and perseverance needed to Get Up in the rink and in life every day.
Grit, you say? Passion? Perseverance? Seems like this is something I wrote about just a little while ago.
Whether you are getting up from a literal fall (on the ice, into the back of a chair after slipping on a rug, walking up your skirt in a performance, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk, having a tower of boxes fall in front of you as you are heading into a room, slipping on fruit cocktail sauce while working at American Serb Memorial Hall and smashing into a concrete floor – yes, all of these things have happened to me) or a figurative one (divorce, substance abuse, mental or physical illness, job loss, etc.), your only recourse is to GET UP.
It will be difficult. You might be in pain at first. Metaphorically or literally.
And no one is saying you have to do it right away or all by yourself. Take baby steps. Find a support team – people who hold you up, whether it’s physically, psychologically, or emotionally.
If you had a bad audition or performance, you have to get back on the musical ice and practice.
- Maybe you have to revisit the basics
- Perhaps you need a coach or teacher – and if you already have one, examine what they’ve been telling you. Were you listening?
- If they haven’t been telling you the right things OR if they have, but for some reason it wasn’t resonating with you, perhaps you need a new coach or teacher.
- Perhaps you need to revise your repertoire – are you singing things that are a little above your technical ability right now? This isn’t to say you’ll never sing them – just not now.
Every day, you have to start anew. And some days that process is harder than others. As Jerome Kern said (via Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers):
