Welcome! My name is Marley Soldan, and welcome to my blog! I started this blog as a way of sharing my story. By sharing my story, I hope to inspire anyone who may read this. In this blog, I will share my ideas and perspectives on interesting topics, and hopefully, improve my skills as a writer.
When COVID-19 hit, everything was shut down. This meant that I had an unlimited amount of free time on my hands since school was online, I couldn’t go skating, and it was too dangerous to spend time with friends. With this free time, I was able to explore several hobbies, eventually finding the one that filled me with the most joy: fostering. In the summer of 2020, my family received our first group of foster kittens. These 3 tiny balls of energy and fluff were the most precious animals on the planet. Before we applied to be a foster family, my parents made one thing clear: No. Adopting. Kittens. That rule was thrown aside as we now have 4 foster fails living their best lives. So far, my family has fostered over 30 cats, and I hope I can continue to foster even as school becomes more time-consuming. Through this blog, I plan to help the fostering community by promoting adoption and helping foster animals find homes.
As you may have picked this up earlier, I speedskate. When I tell people I skate, they usually say, “Oh, figure skating or skateboarding?” Speedskating is a sport that isn’t well known in the US, so most people forget that it exists and only acknowledge it when the Winter Olympics rolls around. As of right now, I have made two Junior World Teams and the 2024 Youth Olympic Team. Through this blog, I want to share my skating goals and accomplishments while educating people on this unique and fascinating sport.
In addition to fostering and speedskating, I like to spend my spare time researching the world of biomedical engineering. Currently, I am working to design the first race-ready prosthetic speedskate. Speedskating is nonexistent in the Paralympics, but I hope that one day I can help spread the joy speedskating brings me in the Paralympic world!
