Let’s go skiing
There are many things available in Japan but not Thailand. Snow is one of many things that some Thai people fly to Japan just to experience it.
Since there is plenty of snow here especially in winter, ski is one of famous winter sport and luckily I have chance to know how to ski.
In this occasion, I would like to thank JASSO for providing this great opportunity for TIEC resident, including me, to join 3-days trip for only 10,000 yen.
I am a loser in most kind of sport. All D in my high school transcript are from physical class so learning how to ski is something I do not mind to be what I use to be…loser..
Fitting very heavy ski wear, made me thought that if I just was able to walk without falling down on the snow, I could be proud of myself and if I fell from skiing, it was something acceptable for me.
The first day that I arrived, we had half day free. Therefore some people who know how to ski and people who do not know how but dare to take risk, went out for skiing. I am not both of them. One Japanese friend asked me if I went out for skiing. I replied no and said that I did not want to take risk. Then he responded that high risk could give high return… hmm..
That sounded persuasive but I was not sure if this quote would be applicable with the high potential to be the dumbest skier like me. Consequently, I waited for ski lesson before skiing.
During the lesson, I had learned how to wear the ski board, to slide, to fall, to get up and most important thing, how to break. From every lesson that the teacher taught, what I practiced most frequent is falling and to getting up by myself.
Why did I fall? When I skied down, my speed kept increasing according to the acceleration at the certain point so I got scare of falling down or and crashing other people. Since I could not control the direction, I got freak out, lost concentration. Finally, I decided to sit and lay down on the floor..that could be called falling too.
Just like our life, when it is over speed, we get scare. If we do not know how to take control, we will suddenly get lost and make stupid decision… Pain can be expected as the result.
After practicing to ski down the small slope and break, the teacher took us to the top of the higher slope. Even I was not content that I would survive. But I have already made up my mind to go skiing so I shoud be ready to fall and bear some pain too. I was quite certain that I could get up if I fall since I have already practiced a lot during the morning class.
At the top of the higher slope, I was the first student who skied down. Not because I was better than the others but I thought I did not mind to fall… next minute I fell by crashing with the teacher. He tried to help but eventually he had to let me go.. on my way.
Some of my friend followed skiing and falling while some were deciding whether to ski or stop there.
This semester I enrolled too many subjects compare with average. Since I made my mind up to study, I think I can manage to survive. Even the consequent can be painful, I should be able to handle my choices.
After the ski lesson finish, I went to the teacher and told him that I had problem with controlling direction. That why I fell very frequent since I got scare of crashing other people. Surprising, he replied this is very important but since we all were not able to break yet, he had not enough time to teach about direction control. Hmmm…
I think we should know how to control the direction before start unless we will go somewhere that we do not want to go and certainly end up with the result that we do not desire to obtain…
He taught me how to control the direction. Then I went up to the top of the slope and ski down again. This time I could make left and right turns. The ratio of falling reduced more than half of what I did last time. I smelt some progress in the air.
My friend says that if we find something difficult. It means that we are learning something new. She is right. I agreed on her statement but sometimes I feel like something new and easy to understand is also good to learn.
Studying unfamiliar subjects will give new knowledge and new perspectives to understand what is going on and in the same time a lot of afford to get through it.
Skiing and life share some characteristics. They are about speeding up, slowing down and making turn to move forward with the right direction. The most crucial part is making decision. Once I decide to go for ski trip, I will go skiing and since I go skiing, I will ski down even I am certain that there is high possibility to end up with falling down. I am afraid of falling down but I think I can learn how to get up…
Let’s go skiing!
