When Bradie Tennell was a novice-level skater and about to head to her first U.S. Championships, her then-coach Susie Wynne gave her some wisdom.
"She said that somebody told her once that every time they stepped on the ice, it was like a blank canvas," Tennell said, "and their program was their art that they were putting on the canvas."
It's a philosophy that has stuck with her over the ensuing eight years, though a junior U.S. title, and a senior U.S. title, and a bronze medal in the Team Event at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
And now, a trip to her first career ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, held on Dec. 5-8 in Torino, Italy.
Tennell qualified for the season-culminating event by virtue of her second-place finish at Skate America and fourth-place finish at Skate Canada International.
"It feels amazing," Tennell said. "I was so excited when I heard that I had a chance of making it. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is what I've been working for and it's finally happening!'"
Tennell's silver medal at Skate America was her career-best finish at a Grand Prix event, besting the bronze medals won at Skate America in 2017 and Internationaux de France last season.
She took the ice with minimal training under her belt following a broken foot that left her in a boot for two months.
"Going into Skate America, I was a little bit scared, to be honest, because I'd only really had about a month of training after my foot injury," Tennell said. "So I kind of just went into it like, 'Hey, I'm going to go out there and I'm doing this for myself. To prove to myself that I can do this, even though I was injured.'
"Because I knew I had put in the work, and I knew that it was going to be what it was going to be. And I just wanted to go out there and skate for myself, and show myself that even though I was injured, it wasn't going to stop me."
Tennell took the ice for her short program set to "Chronos/Mechanisms" by Kirill Richter with that in mind. It was her opportunity to debut a program that she was excited about and kept under wraps for months, and was then unable to compete when she was injured.
At Skate America, its unveiling went about as well as she could've hoped.
"I was super hyped to go out there and skate it," Tennell said. "And when I was doing it I was like, 'Wow, this is going really good.' And then by the time I got to the step sequence I was like, 'Alright, time to just let loose.' It was electrifying. It was just so much fun."
Tennell scored a personal best 75.10 for that program to enter the free skate in first place. It was the first time in her career that she'd led at a Grand Prix event, and it was then that she made sure to call upon the advice Susie Wynne had given her all those years ago.
The ice was a blank canvas.
"I kind of think of every performance in that way," Tennell said. "It's like a blank canvas that nothing I've done in the past (matters). Whether it be stepping on for the free skate, the short doesn't matter, or what I did at the last competition doesn't matter. It's just a new performance, it's a new day, and I have a job to do."
Tennell scored 141.04 to finish second in the free skate and second overall behind Russia's Anna Scherbakova, and then it was on to Kelowna, British Columbia, for Skate Canada International.
It was her first time competing at back-to-back competitions, let alone Grand Prixes, and felt it helped her keep her energy up. She finished fourth at Skate Canada, missing the podium by 6.18 points.
She had one glaring error in her free skate, but it was other, smaller errors that she's the most disappointed in, including not doing the required eight revolutions in her spins.
"The mistakes on the spins were careless," Tennell said. "I hold myself to a higher standard than that, and I think that that was just one of those things where I miscounted. At this stage of the game, it shouldn't be a problem."
Nonetheless, Tennell is pleased that her Grand Prix season went significantly better than it did in 2018, and isn't letting her fourth-place finish eat at her.
"I think fourth place is the worst place," Tennell said with a laugh. "But you know, it's in the past. It's how it turned out. It's how the cards turned up. I can't change it. I can only look forward and work to make it not happen again. Because looking back and dwelling on a near miss of the podium, I feel like that would do more harm than good to the mentality of things. So I think it's just important to take it in stride and be like, 'Okay, this is what happened. This is what went wrong. This is why it happened. Let's move forward and not make these mistakes again.'"
Tennell heads to Italy proud of the work she put in just to earn the opportunity to compete in the Final, and hopes her next blank canvas turns out as well as the ones that came before it.
"I would like to remember to count to eight on my spins," she joked. "No, but I just want to go out there, skate clean, enjoy myself, and show the world what I can do and what I'm capable of."
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