I was 13 when my dad died. It completely blindsided me and my family. My dad was a huge advocate for ice skating. I always joke about how he wanted me to be the first Black woman to win a gold in figure skating. He was incredibly inspired by the mission of Figure Skating in Harlem and was devoted to supporting in different ways. The empowerment that my parents were seeing from the program further inspired them to keep me in the program and then also put my sister in it. My sister, Wendy, was a part of the program and that made it an even better experience. Having family in anything that you're doing always makes it that much more interesting.

A lot of my attention and energy was diverted when my dad passed. I didn't actually know where to place it. While I loved figure skating so much, that was actually the first time where I found myself less devoted to something that I was so in love with. I found myself less available, like emotionally and energetically. I wasn't able to, I guess, express that when I was a child. But I do think one of the most memorable things about that experience is that Ms. Sharon and other members of the FSH team made a push to help me get to a better space for my mental health. That was before I even knew the importance of mental health and what it really was. That really spoke to the character of the organization.

I'm just happy that my mom and dad had an organization like Figure Skating in Harlem. I do think it would have been a different experience if I lost a parent and I didn't have such a close knit community that I had access to or that gave me a place to be or a thing to love so much. I'm also so happy that my dad was able to see me be a figure skater because he was never able to see me be a photographer. So at least he was able to see his kid fulfill a passion and really excel in it.