Personal Narrative: My First Day Of Skiing

There I was, trembling, staring down a massive hill blanketed by two and a half feet of snow. It was a mild Sunday in early February and I had been on a pair of skis all morning. I had progressed fast enough throughout the day that I had built up a false sense of confidence, as it was only my first day of skiing. Confidence that was short lived when faced with the biggest challenge yet, an intermediate level ski run that required a controlled precision I had not yet developed. Down the slope I went quickly accelerating to a blaring speed, I rounded the first turn and could feel my legs struggling to keep up with the pace at which I was proceeding. I sensed that it was only a matter of time before I wrecked, and that's when it happened. My skis
crossed and I went flying through the air, hitting the snow and losing almost all of my gear in the process. The crash left me beaten and bruised and ended my skiing for the day, and not too long after that the trip was over. As we drove off, I remember glancing at the mountain as it faded off into the distance, hungering for more time on the slopes.

Despite being beaten, I had developed a fire inside me, and that fire was waiting to burn down the mountain.
I spent months preparing in order to get back in even better physical shape than before. Every day in the gym I worked to push myself harder so that I would be at my best when it was time to ski again. When the time finally came, once again I was ready to take on the mountainside. I strapped on my skis and headed towards the bunny hills to warm up. Once I felt my feet were under me, I headed towards a nearby run, went up the lift, and wrecked right at the bottom, landing right on the back of my head and landing me inside the ski patrol office. It was here that I learned my greatest shortcoming, I had not appreciated the art that was skiing. One of the ski patrolmen came inside and seeing as I was stuck there until they released me, I asked him for pointers on how to improve. It was there that he explained to me that skiing was not just about going down a hill, anyone could have done that, but it was more about control. A true skier was able to control his skis and glide across the snow. He explained how a great skier could adjust to any condition, but every skier should know their boundaries. This was another one of my shortcomings, I wanted to ski like the pros without putting in the countless amount of years that they each had under their belts. Eventually, I was released and went on to finish the day of skiing, taking it easy and working on my form in order to be
ready for the next day.

The second day of my trip, a cold and rainy Saturday, had scared off most of the other skiers, leaving me and my friends with shorter lines and more time on the slopes.
It was here that I would come face to face with that blue run that defeated me the previous year. In front of all my friends, I carefully paced myself and when I realized that I had made it further down the mountain than last year I lost concentration and wrecked again. I stayed away from the run all day until the skies went dark, the rain had stopped and the bright lights reflected off the snow. Our large group had split up and it was just myself along with two other fraternity brothers who edged me on to do the run with them. I mustered up the courage and set off towards the bottom. They allowed me to go first so that if I crashed they could stop and help, but I didn't. I made it all the way to the bottom, I had conquered the run that had beaten me multiple times. And so I did the run, again, and again. All the determination had paid off. I remember the final run of the day I skied what felt was the perfect run, I had done exactly how the patrolman had instructed and I conquered that hill. My goal for the trip had been completed, I
won.

My time skiing has helped me to overcome my greatest shortcoming of all, quitting. In the past, if something became too difficult, I would just give up. But deep down inside myself was a competitive spirit, a drive to conquer, and skiing helped me to unlock that. By applying that same drive to school, I became an entirely new student. I found myself becoming more involved in class, and my professors noticed. On one such occasion, my criminal law professor even told me to stop participating so she could judge the work put in by some of my fellow students. My work ethic for her class, combined with my passion for legal studies resulted in landing a job interview at her firm for a courier position.

I personally believe I could apply these same characteristics to law school. Just like being on a ski slope, I can get a general idea as to the difficulty of law school by looking at it, but only through the experience of going through will I be able to face the twists and turns in front of me. With this, I believe I can face any challenge that law school will present to me and conquer it.