So... I finally braved the mountain this year and took 11 teenagers up to Ski Beech, NC. Talk about crazy times... no, not really... we have a good (no, great) bunch of kids we work with. My hero of the day was Amy (pictured below):
Let me give you some back story... Amy went on the ski trip with us last year. She spent most of the day in Ski Patrol lying on a cot. Amy even took a lesson, but because the conditions were less than favorable she slipped on an icy patch (and lets face it - it was mostly icy patches last year), dislocated her knee and spent the next few weeks being doted on by her friends and mother.
But this year... this year makes me want to cry (which I started doing just now)... We told the kids that we were going to offer "snow tubing" as an option to skiing and snowboarding this year. Because of Amy's fear of getting back up on the mountain, and how severe her injury was, most of the kids decided to go tubing. Last week we called to confirm with Ski Beech and they didn't write themselves any notes to remind them to give us the "group rate" on everything - even though we had half our kids tubing. So my husband and I spent the next two days figuring out how we were going to work this trip... and get the parents on board to help their kids switch from tubing to skiing/snowboarding and not only work through their fear, but their kids fear as well (talk about stress!!!). So we got (mostly) everyone on board and headed out to Ski Beech yesterday. I spent half of the day on the bunny slopes teaching the transfers how to snowboard, and the other half taking Amy down the mountain... yes, Amy.
She went from being the most fearful to the most energetic! And even when her BFF headed in the lodge out of frustration - Amy stayed with it... And not only stayed with it, but laughed everytime she fell down. What an example she was to me! I'm so quick to give into discouragement and failure, but I need to learn how to laugh at my mistakes get up and try again. Not just try - succeed. I told my friend Dawn today that I've always learned by making mistakes - like a child learning to walk. You only learn how to walk by falling, but it's in the falling and picking yourself back up again where real character is formed (at least in adults!). So here's to my new hero - Amy - Thank you for teaching me to laugh at my mistakes, enjoy the fall and learn by trying. You are amazing and I feel so priviledged to have you as one of my "kids."
What a great site!
ReplyDeleteKudos to Amy, a brave young lady indeed.
But, by the way, Hailey (her BFF) didn't head to lodge in frustration! She was w/me and we fell off lift (scary), got back on again (brave as well) and went back up the mountain several more times (on lift) with much success during her first time snowboarding! She went back to the lodge for a rest!! It was great day for all!