50 Dollar Lesson

It was March 13th, Sunday morning and I woke to find all my friends still sleeping. The previous night we had decided to rise early as we had a plan. A ‘Sunday morning’ and ‘Rise early’ probably never goes well. I am a very strict person with respect to time hence these myths/facts never fit in true for me. All my lazy friends woke up late, 2 hours late from the pre fixed time. Around 12 we all left our place and we were heading towards Detroit lakes. The temperature was getting better. We had rose from -15c to -2c. We reached Detroit lakes, as expected it was completely frozen and people took their vehicles on the lake. We walked on the frozen lake with our heart beating very loudly. We were all scared that any moment the ice may crack and we might fall into the frozen water below the layers of ice. After a little photography we headed back to our vehicle. Now we were driving towards Andy hills, a famous skiing center. We were moving towards an adventure. With the help Mr. GPS we did reach Andy hills. I really wonder how people ever traveled without GPS here before. It was located in such a mysterious place that it would be impossible to locate it without the help of Mr.GPS. We parked our car there and we could see a spectacular sight in front of our eyes. Huge bunny hills and people skiing around, so many people sliding downhill in tubes. It was a very exciting picture. All of us sighed ‘WOW’ unaware of what was waiting for us. We were five in number in which there were 2 pair of couples. By couple I mean boy friend and girl friend. I was the odd man out which makes us five. We had some discount coupons; we got into the queue and purchased five tickets for ourselves. Then we changed into some warm clothes. Most of us had at least 2 layers of jackets and pants. I was already feeling too heavy. Then we wrote our names on a tag and stuck that on our jackets. Then we wrote our name, height and weight on a small sheet to get ski shoes, ski and the poles matching our height and weight. We were all aware of some theoretical tips of skiing; it was first time for all of us. We came out and were on field. Struggling to get into ski shoes and put on the skis. I was the first to wear my ski, but the sad part was that I never knew how to stop nor to balance. As soon as I wore the ski I started sliding forward, I was not able to stop and I shooed all the people on my path and was shouting “how do I stop”. At some point I turned back to call for help and the next thing I knew that I was grounded. It was the most helpless posture and it was just impossible for me to get back on my legs again. I was worse than a baby trying to stand for the first time. After fighting with myself for a while, I had drained 50% of my energy. I gave up and removed my ski. I stood again, went back to the place where I started. I got into the ski, balanced myself with great difficulty and reached a place where there was a rope, pulling people to the top of a bunny mountain. This was the shortest bunny mountain, mostly used by the beginners and children. There was a BIG man helping people with the rope, I told him that it was my first time. He explained me how to use the rope. But everything flew over my head as I concentrated only on how not to fall. The rope started moving and within few seconds I was back on ground. The big guy helped me stand again by literally lifting me, he was a strong man. The rope again started moving and pulling me, I was happy that I was moving up and again I was on ground. I was little disappointed as the big guy again lifted me and made me stand on my legs. This time I decided not to fall and was putting all my energy on resisting the rope from pulling me. And it worked; I did reach the top of the mountain but completely out of energy. As soon as I reached the top, I again fell. This time I had no one to help, not even myself since I had lost all my energy. I was just lying on the ground for a while and one of my friends came there, he tried a lot and finally helped me in removing my ski. Then I wore my ski after standing on the ground. I started skiing finally, but the speed increased with no control .Before reaching the foot of mountain I fell in a very awkward position with my hands twisted under my legs. This time I felt so helpless that even few drops of tears vent out of my eyes. I somehow managed to get out of the skis and stood again. I looked around to locate my friends who were busy themselves falling and rising. The best part was that they had each other. All were beginners and struggled, but a good thing was they had some kind of support that still kept them on the field. That was a moment when I felt it was necessary to have company especially as beginner. Whatever the place is, it is always best to have company, a moral support to back you up. It really changes the situation dramatically. This time I decided not to use the rope and walked all the way to the top of mountain. I stood there to see small children skiing so comfortably. I also saw how parents insisted their children to stand and ski even after they fell. It was good to watch all these. I even witnessed some of them falling in the same way as I did. I was also blessed to see one of my friends falling after a high jump. After a lot of thought process I again decided to ski and fell in a more horrible way. Our time was up hence, I decided to take few pictures and then returned the ski. We all had food and left the place. I was little upset and in pain as well. We were all tired, we drove till Minneapolis, had a good dinner. We dropped two of our friends there and took our way back to Fargo. We reached Fargo around 2.00 am completely exhausted. It was a very hard day filled with lot of twists and falls and will be counted as one memorable experience. The entire trip cost me exactly 50 dollars and taught me that it is necessary to have perseverance to learn something new at this time, a company right beside you to help you in rising every time you fall.