The Journey for Level 3, part 1 (Author’s note: this blog has been a living article over the course of the season...please be kind regarding tense and time as these ‘plans’ have changed to ‘achievements’ as the season has progressed.) I came across a photo today on Facebook. 3 years ago (1/23/15) I received my shiny, silver, alpine, Level 2 pin at Whitetail Resort in Pennsylvania from PSIA. It was a fantastic day recognizing all I had learned and experienced the previous 5 years of teaching and skiing. It was also the capstone to a lot of time and energy I (and all the others who helped me in my journey) had devoted to this particular goal. I look at my face in that picture and I know what went into the shining smile. After seeing it today I knew I had to write about this next experience as well. When I got my level 2, my first courses of action were taking my first level 3 prep clinic (where I felt completely out of my comfort zone because I was moved to the next
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Why am I doing this? The question floated around in the soupy haze of my tired brain as I struggled to make and eat breakfast on a Sunday morning . You see, I had been to a friend’s birthday party, stayed up too late, and imbibed enough the night before that I was struggling to remember why I was 60 miles from home and fighting to make it to my morning line up for a part time job to teach strangers to slide (ski) down a small hill in Pennsylvania. It’s a job which costs me far more financially than it makes me. It’s a job that requires me to take paid time off from my ‘real’ job to work it at times. It’s a job that causes me to have no more than 5 days off between December and March. It’s a job that cuts into my sleep and workout routines. It’s a job that often leaves me physically exhausted (and occasionally mentally exhausted as well). It’s a job that continually leaves me feeling as though no matter how much I’ve learned and mastered I have more and more that I don’t kno
I took a year off completely from teaching skiing. I took a year before that and mostly didn't teach either. I stopped stretching myself too thin and doing PSIA events and teaching and free skiing and working and, and, and... well, I skied a lot more. Just as my relationship with ski teaching has changed, so has that of some of the other Divas - relationships, jobs, kids, and other life changes mean we no longer rip around as a posse of L2s and L3 ladies on a little hill in PA together. But I'm back on the horse - at least a bit - at a new mountain. I guess you could say that it's hard to imagine not being involved in ski instruction after 20 years. I'm excited to be part of a school that reminds me of that hill in PA: Many part time (and fewer full time!) instructors who are passionate about teaching, skiing, and have a thirst to learn Folks who are accomplished in their 'other' careers Snowsports school leadership committed to training - and buildin