Bzzzz- Bzzzzz- Bzzzz, The irritating sound of an alarm clock screeches through the room.  Sophomore Kendal Reynolds groggily awakens to look at her bedside table to see the familiar sight of the three digit number: 3:30 a.m.

She slowly slides out of bed and walks to the light switch. With one quick flick of the wrist the room is illuminated, shocking Reynolds with the realization, it’s morning. Reynolds then goes through her daily routine. Shower, get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth, grab backpack and ice skates, head out the door. It’s now around 4:15 a.m.  Reynolds, still half asleep, will sit in the car for approximately an hour. Her destination: The Bremerton Ice Center where she will spend the next two and a half hours training.

Reynolds works and trains with the Bremerton Figure Skating Club six days a week on top of a full time high school education. Her goal is to keep a 3.5 grade point average (GPA) throughout her school year; this includes both the classes at Peninsula and her online classes.

“I dont have a lot of free time to do stuff because I’m always at school and skating.” Reynolds said.

Although training and school take up a majority of Reynolds free time, skating is a passion of hers. However, like many athletes, Reynolds has at times thought about the downsides of this rigorous commitment.

“There have been moments where you just get tired of doing nothing but skating and school,” she said.

But for every moment like this there are the moments that make it all worth it. For Reynolds, its the freedom on the ice.

  “I like spinning, sometimes I’ll just sit there and spin and spin and spin.” Reynolds said.

Not all of it is as easy as spinning, unfortunately. The ice is not always forgiving when she falls. She has sustained many injuries throughout her years on the ice, including sprained wrists, concussions, multiple bruises and a severe back injury. To this day she endures back and neck pain frequently. Yet through all of the injuries Reynolds continues to spin and compete.

“There’s been a lot, I don’t know the exact number, but let’s just say there are a lot of medals and trophies in my room,” Reynolds said.

According to her, one of her greatest accomplishments was when she competed in 2012 in the State games of America in Colorado. She placed second out of all the contestants including the four other competitors from Washington.

“Normally you just represent your rink, but to represent your state and then placing second.. it was really cool,” Reynolds said.

One of Reynolds’ goals as a figure skater is to make it to Disney on Ice. She hopes to make it there before she gets too far past the age of twenty. She has concluded that this is the prime age for her to perform because most figure skaters stop performing in their twenties due to the harsh effects ice skating has on the body.

Reynolds’ hard work and dedication proves her determination. Waking up at 3 a.m. to skate, then continuing with a full day of school may not be her idea of a great morning, but she is willing to make sacrifices to keep spinning.

“I tell myself  to keep going and keep going and I’ve kept going and its been worth it,” Reynolds said.