An e-mail was sent out to all employees at Handel saying we were going to have an employee skiing day. It was a very busy time at Handel, but the allure of attempting skiing after 20 years or more was enticing. A lot of the other employees are more active and athletic than I am, but I couldn’t resist the invitation. I clicked accept on the appointment. I felt a little giddy. “Skiing? What am I doing? I was a little kid the last time I went, and I probably wasn’t even that good back then.”
Early April, not always skiing weather many places, but you can count on Wyoming’s weather to surprising. Bouncing between snow and decent temperatures in April, May, and sometimes June or later is not a solitary occurrence. Skiing day came and seemed unusually busy because I was trying to finish up two different designs things before our VP of sales attended a fairly large conference. But I wasn’t the only one, everyone was busy that day.
That’s a great thing about Handel, we work hard, but we play hard too, even if we have to schedule out our play time. It can be tough to tear myself away from work that is pressing just to go play. But as a single mother, working professional and part-time student, it couldn’t be more important for me to step away from my responsibilities, laugh at myself and have fun.
The temperature hovered around 44 degrees for most of the day, but snow was still plentiful in the Medicine Bow Park. The cross-country ski trails were not groomed daily anymore, but they were still skiable. Four of us piled into the van to drive a short 15 minutes to the trails. We climbed onto the snow and began clipping into the cross country skis that most of had rented from the ski shop downtown. The most experienced one of the group had his own skis of course.
The sun shone brightly as the snow began to melt, but with many feet of snow, it wouldn’t prevent us from skiing a run that day. Two of us heard some quick instructions and then set off to try our hand at cross-country skiing. One of our newest employees needed a little extra instruction because she had never skied before. I commend her for keeping at it not letting that small detail detour her from enjoying the outing.
I kept pushing along while I fell intermittently, laughing almost hysterically every time. I could feel eachtime I was going to fall, but because of my inexperience, I couldn’t prevent it. I could, however, get back up after I fell and keep going. We climbed a steady incline that made my heartbeat pound in my ears. I hadn’t exercised this much in nearly four years. I wanted to give up, but where would that have left me? Basically, about a mile back in the woods on nothing but snow. Could you imagine the team that would be necessary to rescue me if I had given up?
My coworker and I chatted as we skied. I often fell behind, but we were in no rush and so the others waited. The trail began to wind back toward the beginning of the trail. The expert in the group forewarned me that there was a fairly large hill for a beginner on the way back. I was up for the challenge. I felt better about keeping my balance on the skis and really wanted to feel the wind rushing through my hair again.
I began the descent down the not-so-intimidating hill. My adrenaline began to rush and a smile crept across my face. The run would fall and then level out (but not quite all the way). I crouched down into what I thought the skier position would look like and leaned forward trying to get as much speed as possible. It was exhilarating. As I reached the bottom I yelled, “I didn’t fall! Woohoo!”
I learned three things that day.
- Never be afraid to try something new,
- Don’t give up because it will be harder to dig out of that situation,
and perhaps most importantly,
- Always take time to enjoy life.