Before coming to college, I promised myself to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. There’s no time like to present to experience something new! Thankfully, I’ve had ample opportunities to do so as a student here. It was this mindset that led to me falling in love with my newest obsession: skiing!
Coming from Florida, I’d never seen snow, and had definitely never gone skiing. Putting my trust in two skinny bars to get down a steep mountain sounded like a nightmare. I thought skiing just once was the fastest way to break major bones and never be able to ski again. That was until I gave it a try.
During my freshman spring, I came across a flyer for a free ski trip being hosted by some proctors in Weld Hall (one of our 17 first-year dorms). Of course, I approached the opportunity with major suspicion but still mustered the courage to sign up. As part of the outing, proctors would be taking us to some slopes about two hours away, in New Hampshire, and we would be provided free gear and lift tickets to ski all day. I also convinced some of my beginner friends to join me on the outing, and that made it a lot easier to face my fear of skiing. When the day of the trip came, my friends and I boarded a bus with a handful of other students and made our way to the mountain. We ended up having tons of fun, though my friends and I accidentally found ourselves on a Blue terrain when we should have been on a bunny hill as our first trail of the day! After finding the area for beginners, my confidence in my ability to learn the basics of skiing grew by a lot! My friend and I met a couple who were kind enough to give us some basic instructions and tips, and by the end of our trip we could do basic greens with few falls.
This experience was the start of a year-long obsession with skiing, and I couldn’t wait for the next opportunity to hit the slopes. About a year later, in my sophomore spring, a few friends and I decided to take a weekend trip to Vermont to ski. It was the perfect opportunity to continue building my skills, and I was pumped! I signed up for lessons on the trip as well, and got more tailored instructions to better my technique. With a year between my first time skiing and this trip, I had quite a bit of work to do! I was still falling (a lot!), but skiing became less daunting as I continued doing it. Ultimately, it was a really fun time to bond with friends while also investing time in a cool new skill.
One of the best parts about going to Harvard is its location, and this is especially true if you want to pick up a winter sport like skiing. There are so many ski resorts in New England, with the closest being just a 30-minute drive from Boston! You won’t see me join our ski team anytime soon, but I can’t wait to keep practicing and getting better!
