The senior national team trials arrived again in the spring of Ivy's junior year, the eighteen-month wait Coach Volkov had originally described finally reaching its concrete conclusion, and Ivy found herself approaching the competition with a settled, grounded confidence considerably different from the anxious, driven intensity that had characterized her preparation for the previous, injury-derailed attempt.
"You look different than you did before the injury," Coach Reyes observed, during their final pre-trials preparation session. "Not less determined. Just — steadier, somehow. More at peace with whatever outcome actually arrives."
"I think I learned something important during that whole difficult recovery period. That my worth doesn't actually depend on any single competitive outcome,
