Adaptive Ski Week

        Instead of being in a classroom last week, I spent my whole week at Beech Mountain in North Carolina. Three classmates and I headed up Sunday morning and spent the evening under the lights skiing and snowboarding. Now maybe you are a pro snowboarder or skier, but I am NOT. It's been almost a year since I tried snowboarding for the first time. I tried to learn through what instructors like to call the "slam method". I fell over and over again, forcing myself to fall every time I picked up too much speed. This time, I decided to be a little more patient. I spent a couple of hours on the bunny hill, practicing turns and stops before heading to the green run. Every time I went down the hill, I got a little more confident. After practicing more on Monday, I finally found my snowboarding groove on Thursday. I spent run after run on the green before I braved the blue three times. I'm not a pro by any means but I definitely can say I am ready to face the hill the next time it presents itself.
       But this post isn't really about me perfecting my boarding skills. It's about all the other awesome things I got to do this week. I got to work with veterans, the visually impaired, and other people with physical and mental disabilities. The clinic I was working is one of the oldest adaptive ski clinics in the United States. Instead of thinking about what the participants can't do, it is about showing them what they can. To teach someone who never thought they could ski or snowboard how to do it was so neat. We used monoskis, biskis, standers, outriggers and tethers, but in the end, the participants got to feel the same rush of adrenaline and wind on their faces when they came flying down Beech Mountain. And that is something I will never forget!