(School Paper Written by Luke Urbanovsky)
The air grew colder, crisper. The snow began to fall more heavily. I knew we were getting close. My excitement builds up like the pressure in my ears from the high elevation. An hour later we had arrived to our destination, Vail, Colorado. We couldn’t go on the mountains that day because it was too dark as the sun went down; my need to speed down the disappearing mountain only seemed to grow. I didn’t know how much longer I could contain that flame that wanted to fly down that first mountain and throw freedom to the wind. It was already dark though and worked had to be done. One by one, the list was slowly checked off. The boards were rented, the car was unpacked, the clothes were laid off and finally we went to bed. That night, I must have counted an infinite number of sheep because as I ran out of numbers I would just start over and over and over. I did this until I finally saw that glorious sun peak over the tips of the mountains and I saw myself on those mountains. I got up and put on my clothes for the day unaware of the time. When I was ready, I realized that by parents and brothers hadn’t even woken up. So I waited. So close yet still so far away. Hours later, they were up and about. After a quick breakfast, we were off. We had planned to get there thirty minutes before the lifts open so we could be one of the first ones up. We hadn’t planned on everyone else getting there forty-five minutes early. What came next was more waiting.
I had begun to hate the waiting at that point but I was beginning to become an expert and before I knew it, my parents got on the lift. Another couple got on in front of us and finally I and my brothers got on the lift. I had been snowboarding before and I been on a lift before but I had forgotten about how they operated. Basically, they had three steps; start, stop and wait. Repeat this process twenty times and the lifts were on schedule. People tell you not to look down and I should have followed their advice because not fear but envy struck me. I grazed at the other skiers in amazement. I daydream about flying in between them without a care in the world. I was still day dreaming when the lift began to move again. If it hadn’t been for my brother nudging me to tell me to stop kicking him with my board I would have circled right around and never gotten off. Once again, excitement swelled up inside me and this time it was for real. Only a couple of seats till ours. My heart pounded right out of my chest as my board slide on the heavily packed snow. I carefully lifted myself from lift and began to slide down the three foot long exit ramp and into the exit turn. Just as I saw the first run of the mountain I saw something else, a face full snow. I hadn’t realized that snowboards worked differently than skateboards. When I tried to turn, my board didn’t and I ran into mound of snow straight ahead, the snow burned my face and all down my back. The worst part though was that everything, the lift, the skiers and possibly even the world had stopped just to point and laugh at me.
At that moment, my whole outlook had changed. My mission was still to get down the mountain, but my motive had changed from the carefree feeling to the hope that people weren’t pointing and laughing at me at the base. I got up and began to complete my mission. I must have gone fast because I waited for twenty minutes till I saw my parents come around the bend. Time to get up again. This time though, I had made sure that I was safely around the curve before I let myself enjoy the beauty of the mountain. My second run down, I had fed that hunger that growled at me for so long and every run after that. Always though, after I was safely off the lift.
The air grew colder, crisper. The snow began to fall more heavily. I knew we were getting close. My excitement builds up like the pressure in my ears from the high elevation. An hour later we had arrived to our destination, Vail, Colorado. We couldn’t go on the mountains that day because it was too dark as the sun went down; my need to speed down the disappearing mountain only seemed to grow. I didn’t know how much longer I could contain that flame that wanted to fly down that first mountain and throw freedom to the wind. It was already dark though and worked had to be done. One by one, the list was slowly checked off. The boards were rented, the car was unpacked, the clothes were laid off and finally we went to bed. That night, I must have counted an infinite number of sheep because as I ran out of numbers I would just start over and over and over. I did this until I finally saw that glorious sun peak over the tips of the mountains and I saw myself on those mountains. I got up and put on my clothes for the day unaware of the time. When I was ready, I realized that by parents and brothers hadn’t even woken up. So I waited. So close yet still so far away. Hours later, they were up and about. After a quick breakfast, we were off. We had planned to get there thirty minutes before the lifts open so we could be one of the first ones up. We hadn’t planned on everyone else getting there forty-five minutes early. What came next was more waiting.
I had begun to hate the waiting at that point but I was beginning to become an expert and before I knew it, my parents got on the lift. Another couple got on in front of us and finally I and my brothers got on the lift. I had been snowboarding before and I been on a lift before but I had forgotten about how they operated. Basically, they had three steps; start, stop and wait. Repeat this process twenty times and the lifts were on schedule. People tell you not to look down and I should have followed their advice because not fear but envy struck me. I grazed at the other skiers in amazement. I daydream about flying in between them without a care in the world. I was still day dreaming when the lift began to move again. If it hadn’t been for my brother nudging me to tell me to stop kicking him with my board I would have circled right around and never gotten off. Once again, excitement swelled up inside me and this time it was for real. Only a couple of seats till ours. My heart pounded right out of my chest as my board slide on the heavily packed snow. I carefully lifted myself from lift and began to slide down the three foot long exit ramp and into the exit turn. Just as I saw the first run of the mountain I saw something else, a face full snow. I hadn’t realized that snowboards worked differently than skateboards. When I tried to turn, my board didn’t and I ran into mound of snow straight ahead, the snow burned my face and all down my back. The worst part though was that everything, the lift, the skiers and possibly even the world had stopped just to point and laugh at me.
At that moment, my whole outlook had changed. My mission was still to get down the mountain, but my motive had changed from the carefree feeling to the hope that people weren’t pointing and laughing at me at the base. I got up and began to complete my mission. I must have gone fast because I waited for twenty minutes till I saw my parents come around the bend. Time to get up again. This time though, I had made sure that I was safely around the curve before I let myself enjoy the beauty of the mountain. My second run down, I had fed that hunger that growled at me for so long and every run after that. Always though, after I was safely off the lift.