Last weekend, I was up in New Hampshire, attending an orientation weekend for volunteers for the adaptive skiing program run by New England Disabled Sports (NEDS). It is a fantastic organization and I am so lucky to be doing some work with these guys this year.
First off, let me say that I am simply not in the same league as the rest of the volunteers for this program. I am merely somebody who will be accompanying some clients up in a van to try some skiing (many for the first time). The rest of the volunteers are super-duper expert skiers who pledge 20 days of their ski time over the season to assist people with spinal cord injuries, strokes, CP, MS, autism, amputations, and any number of other ailments to ski. That's a pretty big commitment. That's a pretty great bunch of folks.
I only hope I'll be of some sort of help when I go up, not a clumsy doofus who creates more of a problem just by being there. I can ski. But I'm not great at it. Plus, after living on the west coast for so long, I moved back to New England, went skiing once, and declared the skiing here "Absolutely sucky and not even worth it." Then I proceeded to spend my winters in the gym or on the sofa or sometimes winter running but never on a mountain, which is really where any self respecting outdoor person should be in the winter.
Sometimes it takes something bigger than yourself to motivate you and bring you back to things you used to love (and can love again, given the chance). So instead of moaning and groaning this winter about how much I hate being cold, I'm going to go hang out with some really cool people and have some fun. Maybe, in the process, help some folks who never had the chance to hang out on a mountain in the snow to love it, as well.
It's gonna be a good winter. I can't wait.
(that may be the first time in my life I've ever said that)
TODAY I AM THANKFUL FOR:
skiing.
No comments:
Post a Comment