Bringin’ Classy Back: Enjoying Winter

Michigan winters can get quite long. And cold. And dreary. And I often find myself hating the weather from January to March. Working at the barn is ten times more difficult when its freezing out and everything is buried in 3 feet of snow. At the beginning of this winter, I realized part of my hatred of winter might be partially because there was nothing I looked forward to about it. Nothing about my life becomes better once the snow begins to fall. I then decided I wanted to try and find a winter activity that I enjoy.

Since the last time I went skiing ended up with me on crutches and a torn ligament, that was immediately out of the question. I've tried ice skating before. It was fun, but I got bored pretty quickly just skating around in a circle. Then I realized that I've never tried snowboarding! I've heard lots of horror stories about people that have gotten hurt, people that couldn't even stand up and of people going stumbling down the hill in every direction. But I decided that I wanted to try it, to take a risk and just put myself out there.

Earlier this week my sister, Lindsay told me that her friend Amy was coming to visit this weekend and that she wanted to go snowboarding. Lindsay didn't seem to excited about the idea, but I freaked out when I heard that they were going. Since Lindsay had never gone either and Amy had gone once nearly ten years ago it was the perfect opportunity! We were all going to be equally terrible and we could all try to learn together and laugh at with each other!

When we arrived at Pando we were all feeling pretty nervous as well as excited. After renting our boards and struggling to get the boots on we began out trek to the "bunny hill" (although I'm convinced that "Bunny slight incline" would have been a more accurate name). I'm sure we were quite the sight as we struggled to determine which way of the board was the front and how to attach the boots to the board. Once we were all strapped in, thanks to the help of a nice dad, we had to conquer our first task, the tow rope. After some instruction by the same dad and lots of hesitation, Amy grabbed on and headed up! I was next but wasn't quite as good at the tow rope. In fact, I fell twice before even getting to the top of the "hill". The brave one of the group, Amy was also the first to go down the hill. Followed by Lindsay then I we all managed to make it down with all of our limps attached, but certainly not without falling! Within just a few short hours we all made vast improvement! Although we never moved off the bunny hill, I feel good about our accomplishments. To go from not being able to identify the front of the board to successfully making it down the hill without falling is pretty good, if I must say so myself.

Even though I have muscles that are sore that I didn't even know existed, I am so glad I went! Yeah, I fell, a lot. Yeah, I embarrassed myself, a lot. Yeah, I have a lot of bruises. I also laughed, a lot. And I smiled, a lot. And I had fun, a lot of it.