It all starts with believing

Its difficult to start from ground zero after being so used to being good at something.

This past spring break I went skiing. I have been skiing for the past 4 years and now I can even ski the black runs, the expert runs. This year I skied for the first half of the trip until I decided I wanted to try something new. I decided I wanted to try snow boarding. I knew it was going to be difficult but I wasn’t really convinced until I strapped on the board and fell hard onto my butt. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I pictured myself hopping on the board and ripping it down the mountain like I do on skies. Falling was not in this picture.

Once I started my lesson I was brought to the bunny slope, the one with almost no slope at all. It was so flat and short that there was no char lift, just a conveyer belt called, “the magic carpet”. I strapped on just one foot to begin with and I fell. Just inching down the hill was frustrating. I could not move a foot without taking a hard fall on to the white snow. I was not used to having my two feet strapped together. At the time I was thinking that this was the dumbest spot ever. Finally after 30 minutes on the bunny hill my teacher felt we were ready for the chair lift.

As we rode up over the slopes on the chair lift I looked down and saw this little boy ripping it down the hill. I was intimidating because I could barely stand on the board. I prepared to get of the chair and finally was about to get off and fell on the ground. Embarrassment is all I could feel as the 8 year old kids behind me got of the lift with such ease and moved around me as they looked at me, a high school student who couldn’t even get off the lift without eating it. I wanted to give up. I dragged myself to the top of the slope where I was told to strap on my other foot. Soon it was my turn. I stood up and fell. I stood up again and fell. Finally I got up on the board, moved about a foot down the mountain and fell flat on to my back. My head hit the ground hard and experienced mild seconds of whip lash. I got up again, moved about a foot a fell again. I was so frustrated I wanted to give up. I was so mad I started to say, “I give up, this is dumb” just because I could not get it. I was getting mad at the mountain and started to say inappropriate words under my breath every time I fell. I was the worst feeling to not be able to do something. I was so used to whizzing down the mountain on my skies but there I was lying on the ground in pain unable to move a foot without falling.

Just as I was about to give up I thought of a story I read when I was small. As lame as it sounds I thought of the story of the little blue engine that said “I think I can.” I was determined to get the snowboarding thing down. I wanted to learn and at that moment I realized that I was not getting anywhere with my bad attitude. Instead of telling myself that I’ll never get it I began to tell myself, “don’t give up, come on you can do this.” I tried this the second time down the mountain and I worked I fell a lot less and started to get the hang of it. Soon I was able to link turns. It was amazing what a changed in attitude could do. I was still falling but when I fell I no longer laid there and complained. Instead I flipped my board over and just tired and tired again until finally on the last day I was linking S turns down the mountain and did not fall that entire run.

From this experience I have learned that attitude is everything and that I can’t do anything without first believing that I can. I also learned that determination overcomes obstacle that seem nearly impossible. When you are down you have to just pick yourself up and move forward.