Just Keep Skiing

I begin to shiver as I hit the cold water once again with a splash. My head is complete submerged before my life vest quickly returns me to the surface. I paddle myself over to my skiis which have inevitably come off once again. This felt like try 150 and I still hadn't been able to stay up for more than a few seconds. With each consecutive fall, I became increasingly frustrated; I mean how hard could it be to stand up on two skiis? I had been dancing all of my life, my balance has always been one of my strengths, so why was it now my biggest weakness?

I could feel my frustration building, each pull becoming harder and harder, until my mom pulled the line in, forcing me to take a break. My sister then eagerly jumped into the cold water, skiis on as she got into position behind the boat. With one swift movement, she was up out of the water; just like that. First try, two years younger than me and already able to ski. What was I doing wrong? Why couldn't I do the same thing, I mean it's easy enough to keep you balance. 

Immediately I decided I didn't like water skiing. It simply wasn't for me. However, my parents had a bit of a different idea. They decided I was going to keep trying to ski until I was able to stay up, then if I still was unhappy with it then I could quit. That was the way things worked in our family. It was fine if you didn't want or like to do something, but the reason couldn't be because I can't do it or because I won't try. So, the following days when the water looked like a sheet of glass, we would take off in the boat to ski. For three whole days I could barely stand up. It began feeling like an empty cause, like skiing was just not going to be something I could do. I clearly was incapable.

On pull number five that morning I signaled that it was going to be the last one for the day because my body just couldn't take anymore. It's surprising how much energy trying to get up on water skiis takes out of you considering it's such a short burst of time (in my case). I steadied my skiis in the water, parallel to one another. Scrunched up in a ball I signaled to my mom I was ready. The boat roared to life, pulling me along with it. I held onto that handle with literally every ounce of energy left in my body... and I don't know how, but I managed to stay up.

This was the moment when all of those preceding attempts became worth it. It was when all of the feedback on stance and how to hold on longer finally resonated with me. It was when I finally understood the saying that if you fail try try again. I had always considered myself to be someone who tried hard, but I never had to really try as hard as I did to get up on skiis. Yes trying something is one thing, but it's having the determination to stay with something difficult that really counts.

In the moment it felt like I was the only 12 year old on the shoreline who couldn't ski, like because of that I shouldn't ski. It's important to try new things, but it's more important to stick with things when they get difficult because when the going gets tough, the tough get going.