Determination

I have to give A credit, she was confronted with an obstacle (her own anxiety) and through sheer determination overcame it and accomplished her goal. It's nice to see when your kids pull that off. A tends to overthink things and while this can lead to great insight, it can also make a journey more difficult. Indeed, when you over think things, you often tend to avoid them altogether, which is shame because you can miss out on a lot of things. Ever since A was little she gave a lot of thought to things, and it showed. She is a cautious and thoughtful person, and sometimes you can see the pensiveness in the things she does, at least in the early stages. I saw it in her skiing and skating, where you could see she wasn't as relaxed as she could be.

When she wanted to try snowboarding, I had a sense this would be another journey of discovery, especially since it can be a painful learning process. I signed them both up for lessons this winter and N picked it up pretty quickly. A would have been fine except that she missed half the lessons, so she fell behind. By the time she returned the rest of the class was off and running. That, however, didn't mean she couldn't practice on her own.

One day when N was off skiing with his buddy at the big hill, A and I went to S6 and she spent the day snowboarding. Actually we both did, and I thought at some point she'd just call it a day because it can be a little rough on the body, but she was determined. She just kept going up and boarding down. At some point I switched over to skis and I figured she'd do the same, but she kept going for it, and by the end of the day, she was looking good. You could see she was more comfortable and didn't need me there to offer moral support. She had become a snowboarder.

I'm proud of her, she stuck it out despite the rigors and anxiety that come with learning not only a new trick, but one that can pound on your body, especially your bottom. I've always felt that A is a cerebral kid and can overcome physical challenges by just thinking her way through them. Of course, the stakes are higher when it involves learning a cool activity like snowboarding, but that enhances the reward.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Aaron Brown for the pic.