HOW HAS SKIING INFLUENCED YOUR LIFE?

A Life Altering Addiction

Mostaddictions have a telephone hotline to help the caller quit what they areaddicted to. At the time I had no idea what I was getting into, or how much thenext two hours of my day would change my life forever. This life alteringexperience took place on a snowy day in December of 1995 when I was only fiveyears old. The flakes of snow seemed to be as big as my face, but yet they weresmaller than the grin I was sporting from ear to ear. I was bundled up likeRalphie’s brother in the movie, “A Christmas Story” and I could barely move. Idragged my skis behind me as I awkwardly waddled out the doors that opened upto a whole new world. Looking back, I now know that it was on this day that Ibecame addicted to skiing. Usually, an addiction is a bad thing, but in mycase, it was and still is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It hasshaped me as a person and taught me some of the most important fundamentals inlife.

Afterthat first day of feeling the rush of adrenaline flow through my body, I havenot, and will not turn back. The first life lesson I learned through skiing wascommitment. Nobody can learn to ski perfectly in day let alone a season; ittakes years of commitment to better yourself. I will be completely honest insaying that I was awful my first time out. Even as that crucial first seasonpassed, I remained horrible. I was out of control ninety nine percent of thetime and what most people would call an accident waiting to happen, or as somewould say, a ski patroller’s worst nightmare. My parents were just averageskiers themselves so I had to reach out for help to learn the basics. I wassoon enrolled in weekly lessons to better my skiing. I strived to learn how toski as well as my instructors. As the seasons passed, I eventually learned howto ski under control and my addiction was fueled by commitment and passion.

Evenas a young “shredder” I was immediately drawn to the terrain park. This is therun on a ski hill that offers a series of jumps and rails for skiers orsnowboarders to hit. In my beginning years of exploring the freestylediscipline of skiing, I was riding off the sides of the jumps in the terrainpark that would launch me about three feet in distance. As I aged, I began toactually hit the jumps as they were intended. Year after year, the park at mylocal hill always had a jump line consisting of four jumps. They would rarelychange and this would get boring after repetitive runs of simply hitting jumpafter jump. This is where skiing has taught me to be creative. Now after yearsof practice and as a much more skilled skier, I am able to mix up my runs witha variety of spin rotations and directions as well as adding front and backflips. No two runs are the same and there is always something I can work onlearning and perfecting which takes both commitment and creativity. While I amgoing down the slopes, my mind is free of every worry I have ever had. It isall about progressing and trying to become better every day. When I enteredhigh school, I branched out to try to conquer another discipline of skiing.

Skiracing was completely different than freestyle and taught me life lessons thatfreestyle could not. I learned how to become a better individual skier and topush myself to win races but at the same time my coaches taught me how to workas a member of a team and be a leader. I was voted the captain of our varsityski team and not only did I have to push myself to become better, but I had topush the other five members on the team to do so too. There are two first placesat every ski meet, the individual winner and the team winner. Many schoolscompete against each other and bring their best six racers. The top four timesfrom each team are added together to create the team score. It took theleadership qualities and teamwork skills that I learned from skiing to helppush my team to win our conference. Not only do these qualities help me on thehill, but off the hill in school as well.

Whilesome people hate the winter months, they remain my favorite. They remind me ofthe first time I went down a hill and the commitment it took to become theskier that I am today. The qualities I have picked up from skiing have helpedbuild strong qualities that have shaped me as a person that I am very proud of.Skiing is something that I am pleased to be addicted too; and if there is aSkiers Anonymous Hotline that I am unaware of, do not bother giving me thenumber.