On explaining the difference to her students between skating then and skating now: I’ll tell them, you can watch on YouTube. They’ll go, oh, it’s so hard to do a double axel, and I’ll say, you weren’t anywhere near a twinkle in your parents’ eye because your parents weren’t even born then, but go on YouTube and watch my brother-in-law in 1957 do the triple axel. And they don’t say anything any more. And that’s where I think I can help them – to say, oh, you think it’s so monumental, but you put your mind to it, you persevere, you have to have patience. And I tell the kids now, the reason you get frustrated is because you can Google anything. You go on Google and you can get your answers instantaneously. And to be honest with you, I’m the same way, I’ve fallen into the same trap. But I also realize that for anything to be worthwhile, you have to be patient. You can’t Google a double axel or an Olympic gold medal, it doesn’t work that way. And they like that, they like it to be put in their terms. But also I think my age has helped me. They know how long ago it was that I skated, and yes, it was different then, I didn’t have the triple jumps. But the sport hasn’t changed. The double axel hasn’t changed. And I tell them the story about my mom and me, about my having tears over learning the double axel, I had the biggest cheat on it, it was so hard learning to stand up on it, and how my mom couldn’t understand getting upset over one more turn in the air. And I got to thinking about it, and I thought, you know, my mom’s right. Just keep your arms in a little longer, stand up a little straighter, jump up a little higher.
And the kids will say, but, but, but, but, but, and I say, oh, I know, I did the buts, buts, buts too, but in reality that’s what it is [laughs].