The FIRST Ski Trip

            I can remember the first time that I ever went skiing. I was about 8 years old when my dad had gotten it in his head to take me skiing. We were in Utah at the time and we went to one of the biggest ski resorts in the country, Park City. Before we left on our trip, I can remember being very excited to finally go skiing. That excitement slowly turned to dread as I saw the mountain that I was supposed to slide down on two pieces of wood. That feeling of dread just multiplied as a got on top of the mountain and looked down. It looked like I was looking down the face of a cliff and certain death. I can still remember seeing the land around me like a gigantic map. Despite my dad’s encouragement to stand up and try to ski, I just sat down and I slid down on my bottom very, very slowly. My dad quickly got impatient with my progress down the mountain and proceeded to leave me. While my dad denies that he ever did this, I remember. By the time that I had gotten about half way down, my dad had passed my about a dozen times, and I was thoroughly sick of the snow. Then, out of the blue, a very patient mother saw me sliding on my bottom and decided to teach me how to ski. She got me on my feet and showed me how to get down the mountain actually using my skis. When I got down, my dad was astonished to see me coming down not on my but, but on my skis! What was even more astonishing was that I had decided that skiing was not all that bad. So I went up and few more times this time with my dad. Ever since then skiing has been my favorite sport (though perhaps it ties with basketball).

            Now that I think back on this experience, I realize that there is a valuable lesson to learn from this. Sometimes, we all need help and assistance; and sometimes we are just not patient enough to give someone else our time and assistance. If we just learn the gift of patience and service, we can accomplish anything, even teaching an 8 year old how to ski.

            Another lesson that I learned from this was that we can learn to do anything if just keep at it long enough. In my experience, I was forced to keep at it all the way down the mountain. Thus, I did eventually get the hang of it. So, if we can just find the courage to try something new and not give up, we can master that thing that we want to do. All we have to do is try. A quote that exemplifies this says, “Triumph, is just a try with an umph on it”. If we take this advice to heart, there is not much that we cannot do.