erratic thoughts
I’m glad I was raised to be a tomboy.
My friends and I grew up fighting battles and training dragons with our stuffed animals instead of chasing boys and pretending to be princesses. We idolized Avril Lavigne and played soccer on the field, illegally checking opponents and happily partaking in epic brawls over the ball. I don’t think I’ve ever once been in a hair-curling slumber party, or had my nails fussed over (for piano playing reasons, and now for work-related factors).
Ten years later, and everyone else has grown out of that phase – except for me. There are times when I’d seriously consider investing a huge chunk of time and money into a less atrocious wardrobe and make up drawer, but my expensive passions of boarding can’t be helped. It’s too much of myself for me to give up.
Snowboarding tells me who I am without saying anything at all. It’s a venue, a way of life that’s just waiting for me to become better – but only if I work and aspire to do so. It reminds me that I could be highly competitive, motivated, courageous, and good at it in the near future. And with so many others by my side watching, teaching, coaxing me to push myself, there’s no way I can let anyone down.
There was a moment where WLau and I were slipping through the forest on Big White, trailing behind two incredible skiers, and a cliff appeared, with a good seven-foot drop. With the skiers looking back, and snowboarder coming behind me, I decided to forget sensibility and leaped off. Didn’t land clean – in fact, fell backwards almost immediately after – but the several seconds of board scraping off of a cliff and free falling couldn’t have been a better feeling. A prime example of a mistake that opens up opportunity – that free-falling sensation just lets me know that life isn’t scary unless you believe it is.
So, what next? I’m thinking I’ve got to try at least one extra large jump in my life. I’ve never had a broken bone before – maybe it’s time to let go a little bit more.
