{"id":42088,"date":"2020-12-22T14:06:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T19:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/?p=42088"},"modified":"2021-04-13T11:20:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T15:20:56","slug":"my100days-emilea-zingas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/2020\/12\/22\/my100days-emilea-zingas\/","title":{"rendered":"#My100Days as a competitive figure skater"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Emilea Zingas (CGS\u201922), the gap semester has been a time to focus on what\u2019s important in her life. Zingas used her gap semester to further her figure skating career, traveling for tournaments and training in preparation for joining the BU Skating Team next semester, while also working and taking a class. We spoke to Zingas about her gap semester, her figure skating career, and why she\u2019s looking forward to figuring out what she wants to do through the CGS program.<\/p>\n

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Emilea Zingas skating in an international competition during her gap semester. Photo Courtesy Emilea Zingas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why did you choose CGS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was looking at a few different schools, programs, and opportunities and CGS just seemed the best for me, since I knew I was going to be traveling in the fall semester before the pandemic hit. I knew I was going to be doing international competitions and I wanted to make that a priority, so taking school off completely and having that time was really important to me. Also, I am a bit undecided in my area of study at the moment so being able to get a little bit older and explore different things before I have to make a definite decision is also important to me.<\/p>\n

How are you spending your gap semester?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a job at a boutique 20 minutes away from my house. It\u2019s a really small business but it\u2019s cool to be able to help a newer and small business near me grow. I\u2019m also training 20 hours a week on the ice and 10 hours a week off the ice so that\u2019s a big time commitment. And I’m taking a Greek language class to get a few credits from a university at home, because I wanted to freshen up my Greek skills.<\/p>\n

How has the time been valuable to you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This semester I\u2019ve realized what\u2019s important. I\u2019ve been able to both prioritize my skating and get organized and focus on myself without social pressures and school pressures. Just being able to plan out my skating career and academic plans was a really good opportunity. And I\u2019ve had fun. My friends are home because of the pandemic, so that\u2019s been nice.<\/p>\n

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Emilea Zingas skating in an international competition during her gap semester. Photo Courtesy Emilea Zingas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What have been some of the most memorable moments of your gap semester so far?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had the opportunity to travel which is a really big deal now because of the pandemic. For international competition, I went to Budapest, Hungary twice and Minsk, Belarus. That would be my highlight because traveling for international competition, especially in figure skating is such a cool experience. You meet a lot of really nice people and you get to see the city. On the days that we had practice and we didn\u2019t have competition, I would skate three hours in the morning and the rest of the day go out and see the city which was really cool. Also, since you\u2019re exposed to a lot more people, including more judges, your name gets out there more so it helps your skating career in that sense. My mom and I went to the first two competitions together but this last one was just me and my coach so that was also a different experience. It was fun but it\u2019s new so just being able to spend time alone with my mom and alone with my coach, growing with them and seeing where skating can take me has really just been awesome.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to future CGS students when planning their gap semesters?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think definitely keep yourself busy and keep yourself entertained and try new things. Personally, I’ve gotten into doing more yoga and cooking. It\u2019s important to not let yourself slip away mentally because if you\u2019re not taking classes sometimes you can forget about school. If you forget to be organized, those skills don\u2019t always come back easily, so I would say definitely keep up on that end of things. Also, just try to make the most of it because it goes really fast. The fact that it\u2019s almost over already is really weird, so make the most of it and experience everything that you want to do.<\/p>\n

What were some of the skills you took out of the gap semester? What did you learn?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the most important thing I learned is what\u2019s important. A lot of times our judgement is clouded when we\u2019re around other people, and when you have a time to yourself to prioritize things, it really is good for you. Another thing is time management. When you have all this time to yourself and it\u2019s all on you really to decide what you want to do and what you want to make of it, it\u2019s important to know how to manage your time. I think that\u2019s a skill that carries on to a lot of things in life. That\u2019s been a challenge for me but also something I\u2019ve worked on and gotten better at. Also, with everything so uncertain because of the pandemic, it\u2019s nice to have a plan.<\/p>\n

What are you most looking forward to about the next four years?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to move to Boston; I love the city. And I\u2019m excited to learn a lot and figure out what I want to do with my life, because I really don\u2019t know exactly what I\u2019m going to do yet. I am also excited to pursue my skating career further and am planning to skate on the Boston University Skating Team. I know BU has a really awesome environment, so there\u2019s going to be people that are more like me than sometimes my hometown. I live in a pretty remote area of Michigan, so I\u2019m excited for the change and the ability to be on the move, since I feel like Boston is so fast paced and I\u2019m like that in my everyday life.<\/p>\n

— Compiled by Meghan Bohannon<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Emilea Zingas (CGS\u201922), the gap semester has been a time to focus on what\u2019s important in her life. Zingas used her gap semester to further her figure skating career, traveling for tournaments and training in preparation for joining the BU Skating Team next semester, while also working and taking a class. We spoke to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4211,4263,1,340,4288,4205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42088"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42095,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42088\/revisions\/42095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}