skiing

I went skiing for the first time in seven years a few weeks ago. This was a pretty significant feat for me because the last time I went skiing I almost killed a bunch of handicapped kids (not kidding). To say in the least, I was feeling slightly nervous when we got to the top of the mountain. Terrified would probably be a more appropriate word. But my friend, who is an amazing skier, thought that learning on the intermediate courses might prove to be more effective for me than trying to snowplow down the bunny hill all day. Thankfully, I’m a fast learner, and he’s a good teacher, so by time we had to leave, I was doing it like a pro, or at least like it really wasn’t my first time skiing in a while. I mention this not only because I’m extremely proud of myself, but more so because of some really cool principles I learned through it. One is that we have to make ourselves do hard things sometimes. It had been a while since I had felt as uncomfortable as I did when I was standing at the top of the mountain, looking down and remembering past experiences and acknowledging very acutely my apparent incapabilities. But you know what was cool? The face of the mountain, or the way I saw it, at least, changed with time as I learned control and proper technique. I think that it’s easy to address difficulties in life with a passive, roll-all-of-the-possibilities-around-in-your-head-to-no-end approach instead of the more active, figure-things-out-as-you-go approach. Of course your form won’t be perfect initially. But if you know how to move forward, then you should.