Tuesday 23 December 2014
Winter
is absolutely my favourite season. There is hot-chocolate, eggnog, gingerbread,
snow, Christmas…who doesn’t love Christmas? You don’t have to celebrate
Christmas, but the general jolly-ness of the holiday always makes my day. In
Vancouver, the absolute must-do during winter is to go skiing, or snowboarding.
If you feel like speed is not your thing, there is always cross-country skiing,
but that’s not what this article’s about. I’ve never skied before coming to
Canada. But at the urging of many family members and friends, I decided to go
for it.
As a
kid (>12 I think), they were very cheap
season tickets. Going with a friend is probably a good idea, preferably
somebody who knows what they’re doing because learning (at least for me) was
not easy. Yes, skiing and snowboarding look
cool, but when you’re actually on those flat pieces of plastic, the ground
really does seem to move fast. My first time snowboarding, I couldn’t go down
the bunny hill. But of course, everything gets better with practice. Unfortunately
for me, my dad thought I got enough practice on the very first day.
So
off I go, with him at the top waiting and me on a green. Yes, green runs are
supposed to be easy but that was actually the first day I was on a snowboard.
So precariously I turned and stopped, turned and stopped, sometimes just edging
my way down the hill. However half way down, the wind started to pick up and
before I knew it, I was in the middle of a blizzard. There was snow and wind
blowing everywhere, sometimes so thick that I could barely see which way is up
and which way is down, only relying on gravity. And that didn’t work so well as
gravity also made you fall. So there I was falling and stopping and going
slower than a person walking. And there wasn’t anything I could do; walking
back up was way too far, so I kept on going.
After
almost 2.5 hours I finally saw the shadow of chairlifts at the end of the run. Words
cannot describe the relief I felt; there wasn’t a happier sight. I finally got
on the chairlift, taking me up in less than 10 minutes,
and of course, falling again when I got off. But
I went back. Even though I was terrified afterwards, I went back again and
again, and now, snowboarding’s my favourite thing in the world.
So
the moral of the story? Skiing is awesome, and there’s a reason Vancouver
hosted the winter Olympics. But more than that, it’s to always try something
new. To try, try again because one day, you’ll succeed. One day, you’ll look
back and realize these experiences have made you far more as a person, and be
filled with pride. That day, you’ll be a happy person.
- Selena
