My Skier

The first time I went skiing I was nineteen years old, I lasted half a day, and haven't been back on the slopes since.  As you can imagine, growing up in Hawaii, I had little oppurtunity to learn to ski, and when I moved to the mainland I never felt the need or desire to change that.  Of course, I married an avid skier, and there was never a doubt in his mind that our children would learn to ski at an early age.

Tessie has always been a cautious girl, and has only recently started to show a lot of physical confidence.  Some of her friends started to ski last year, but we knew she wasn't even close to being ready.  This year she told us she was ready, and I could tell Nick was excited.  Today was her first day on the slopes.  It was great.

For a moment, I thought it wasn't going to happen.  Tessie was sitting on the counter in the gear rental office, and Nick was trying to get rental boots on her.  Tessie was whining, and claiming she wasn't feeling well, which we knew wasn't true.  Nick did a great job of calming her down, and she agreed to try the boots on one more time.  It worked, and we got her outside.  What happened next was amazing.  Nick got her on the bunny slope, and I watched my daughter take run after run with her dad, grinning from ear to ear the whole time.  After a few times down the hill in between Nick's legs, she even started to go alone on flat ground.  I watched her scooting along on her tiny skis and smiled as she called out "I'm having so much fun!"  Well it looks like I may have to learn to ski after all.  It will be a beautiful sacrifice that I will be happy to make.