Replying to What skiing means to me / mental health

As I sit here, shredded from going out tonight. I’ve decided to let my guard down and throw my personal life out onto newschoolers.

I found skiing out of shear boredom during the pandemic, and thank goodness I did. The amount of depression and anxiety that I’ve experienced over the past few years is too much to put to words, and It’s sad how much people are experiencing the same exact feelings these days.

I’ve lived a good life and had great opportunities / privileges, which creates such a strong feeling of guilt whenever I vocalize my mental health issues.

Long story short the combination of intense feelings of heartbreak, loneliness and lack of self worth I’ve experienced / still struggle with was essentially cut in half by this amazing sport we all share.

The shine the snow has on a blue bird day, the rhythm of linking turn to turn, the weightlessness of a big jump line, drinking beer on the lift/pissing on trees with my friends, they were all things that helped me do one big thing…. It helped me to stop thinking.

It helped me to enjoy the moment.
It helped me to forget.
It helped me to be outside.
It helped me to reach out to my friends.
It helped me to regain my confidence.

And most importantly it helped me to have hope, to have things to look forward to…. , because in my messed up mind, I was holding onto threads until I saw the x games ski knuckle huck and decided I wanted to try this out.

I want to say that I appreciate all of you, and I appreciate this forum. I’m new here, and I always read things like, “newchoolers is more toxic than ever”, yet I’ve had countless good interactions on here.

I laugh when I read dolans posts, when woflowz talks about his marksmans, when vibecheck puts his 🥂. When someone is encountering skierman for the first time in their threads, when trap angel replies, when milfhunter appears out of nowhere, when someone makes a bighorn joke, when weastcoast says some stupid shit that makes sense somehow… and there’s countless more people that have entertained me on my lunchbreaks / before bed.

You can literally ask any gear related question on this site and a handful of people will try to help you… even though they get nothing back from it.

Do you realizing how special that is?

I feel that there’s some sort of disconnect going on, that people remember newschoolers in its hayday, without realizing how much it still has to offer.

I apologize to any of you who I’ve been an ass to. Let’s try to keep more of the uplifting/funny/helpful/hype at the core of all the stuff we throw up on here, because that’s what’s lightened my sad days, and I’m sure it’s lightened a lot of yours too.

Thanks for contributing to this place, it’s helped me a lot.