Not All Who Wander are Lost

After college (closing in on nearly a decade) learning new things has happened increasingly infrequently. Overlaying “learning new things” into a venn diagram with “new things I was terrible at but continued to do” left me with a null set. This past January at 30 years old I decided to bring skiing into both sets.

I attempted skiing about five years earlier and made it off the bunny slopes with largely comical, painful and wet results. I hoped this time with the help of lessons to do a little bit better. After an MLK weekend trip at Sugarbush with OvrRide, was I better? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Was I good? No. Yesterday, a friend posted an article from the NY Times (It’s Great to) Suck at Something by an author has spent about fifteen years surfing poorly. I loved her case for sucking.

“By taking off the pressure of having to excel at or master an activity, we allow ourselves to live in the moment. You might think this sounds simple enough, but living in the present is also something most of us suck at.” 

As a type A adjacent person, I’ve spent a lot of my life around people who have not failed often and many of my decisions have been based on likelihood of success. In part, skiing has been really enjoyable for me because I have no expectations. My desire to control is dampened by both my skill level and the constantly changing environment, all in all a freeing experience.

Unfortunately, due to being in non-skiing friendly climates much of the winter I didn’t get back to skiing again until April. I booked a last minute solo trip to Snowbird in Utah again through OvrRide. After two more lessons, I’m better but still not good. However, with the combination of great scenery and wonderful people, I’m definitely hooked. Until next winter!