The sun was faintly shinning through the clouds on an early February morning. A light snowfall was dribbling down on the trees like powdered sugar on a waffle. Birds were chirping, children were laughing, and the sound of skiers shredding down the slope was in the air. My good friend Este and I had been snowboarding for a couple of hours, going through every possible trail at the resort. We were the best of friends. He was my snowboarding companion.
We would go riding every weekend practically. Going through trees, around enormous boulders, racing people, and seeing exactly how fast we could get down the mountain were just some of the tasks we were accomplishing. We were having the time of our life. Everything seemed to be going so well. While sitting on the snow-filled chair lift, anxiously waiting to reach the top of the mountain, I saw an arrangement of mounds that appeared to be jumps. I didn’t know exactly what they were or what purpose they served.
Through the trees I saw something moving. A young snowboarder had popped out from the mist and was headed right for the mounds of snow. Such speed and agility were with the rider as he soared down the hill. “Did you just see that Este? That guy just jumped off one of those gigantic heaps of snow. He must have been at least fifteen feet high in the air.” It was the most miraculous sight I had ever seen in my young life. It seemed as if the rider had no fear of what was happening or what could possibly happen.
The Essay on “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Dust of Snow” both by Robert Frost
... truth in human nature by using the crow, snow, and hemlock tree, all elements of Mother Nature, to symbolize human ... down on him and the dust of snow from the hemlock tree gave him a change of mood. The ... emotion changes when the dust of snow falls on him from the hemlock tree. Although the poem is very ... contrast to the crow. A hemlock tree is a poisonous plant, so the snow that came down on the ...
Immediately following the rider were several others who somehow accomplished the same trick as the first. One after another, jumping, hopping, skipping, barreling, like a herd of deer frolicking through a quiet meadow. “We have to try that out!” exclaimed Este with deep emotion in his voice. “I want to be able to do that!” The top of the mountain had come, and we headed right to the path that led to the jumps.
Luckily, while we were still on the lift, we studied precisely how to get to the site. The two of us rode like eagles, practically flying down the hill to get to where we wanted to go. “Well, here we are. Who is going to go first?” we both muttered as we looked down the slope. It didn’t seem quite right. From the chair lift, the jumps didn’t seem that big, but when we were on the ground actually standing in front of them, they seemed almost twice the size.
It was as if they were giant walls that we had to scale just in order to get to the other side. “Well I’m going for it,” I pronounced as I strapped myself into my board and got the courage to make the first move. I proceeded down the hill, trying to catch as much speed as possible. Luckily the wind was on my side as it pushed me just that much faster. I had pictured in my mind what the other riders had done in order to jump so perfectly. I studied their every move from that rusty chair lift, hoping that I would copy every move they had.
I had picked up quite a bit of speed at this point and was beginning to have second thoughts. Should I back down? Should I go for it? This jump is pretty big. How badly will I be hurt if I crash? What will happen if I land it? Everything you can possibly think of was bouncing back and forth in my head. Too late. I was at the top of the jump. Upon looking down with the split second to spare, I realized I was pretty high in the air and came to the conclusion it was a bad idea.
I was belly-up; as if I were lying out in the sun trying to get a nice, even tan. There was nothing I could do. I was vulnerable to the mountain. Only gravity could tell what was going to happen next.
Am I going to die? What am I going to break? How am I going to get down the mountain? All of these questions again raced through my head. I knew it was going to be a rough landing. I was almost positive I would land on my butt and most likely break my tailbone. “Why did I ever do this?” After what seemed like an eternity of flying through the air, the ground finally came.
The Essay on Mountain Gors
Mountain gorillas are the most endangered of the gorilla species. Approximately 600 or so remain. They are massive in size, with a short, thick trunk and broad chest and shoulders. Its eyes are very small in proportion to its other features. Older males develop longer heads, and are twice the size of females. The most severe threat to mountain gorillas is habitat loss. The fertile volcanic soil of ...
I was straight as a board and stiff as a pole the whole ride. I had landed directly on my back, immediately knocking all the air out of my small, innocent lungs. I laid there in silence, trying to catch my breath as the snow lightly spread over me. I knew Este was watching the whole time and that he would let me know exactly how it looked.
“You are such an idiot!” were the first words that came out of his mouth. I was stunned at first on the choice of words to use after an ordeal I had gone through. I then realized what he meant by it. We thought we could be as good as the riders we had seen, and I obviously proved that wrong. He had told me that I was about ten feet off the ground or so and made a direct line to the ground. I still remember exactly how he described it, half giggling and half concerned with a giant smile on his face.
Once I knew I was ok and saw that everything was in tact, I began laughing. We sat on the hill for a good thirty minutes, just laughing at what had happened. We were like two kids who had just heard the funniest joke ever. All the rest of the day, we continued to chuckle at the fact that I had crashed so hard. To this day, several years later, we constantly go back in time and remember the events that occurred on that cold, snow filled day. The events that led up to the attempt of a trick that I wasn’t able to accomplish, the destruction of such body parts like my back and tailbone, and the comic relief of looking back on it years later and still having a smile on our faces.
This is what life is all about.
