The Falling  

About five years ago my family went up to the white mountains during the 

winter so my sister and I could learn how to snowboard. Before that trip I had always 

wanted to try snowboarding. All my friends did it and I thought it might be really 

fun. I loved watching snowboarding shows and movies and was so excited to finally get

to do it. After the five hour drive up to the Greer Lodge, we finally made it to the cabin 

we were staying in. It was pretty late so we went to sleep the second we got in our 

beds.

The next morning we got up at 7 A.M. to get all our things together and got to the 

slopes before the big crowd came in. When we got there my dad singed us up for 

lessons so my sister and I left to go meet up with the snowboard instructor. He taught us 

the basics, to remember to bend your knees and keep your back straight. We practiced 

just standing up on the snowboards and getting used to how they fell on our feet for a 

couple minutes. Then he decided to take us up to thetop of the bunny hill so we could 

try going down a slope for the first time. My sister and I were only able to actually ride 

the snowboard for about 2 feet until we would fall. After about two hours of practicing we 

finally made it down the bunny hill. I was overjoyed to finally make it down that hellish 

snowy hill and I thought I could take on any slope as long as I had my snowboard with 

me. My sister said that we should attempt to go down a green (which if you don’t ski or 

snowboard is a small hill, but longer than the bunny slope.) I thought to myself “Well 

why not?” and we took the ski lift up to the first green. The first thing I did when I got to 

the top was just drop straight down into the hill and let me just say that it was a bad 

idea. To be perfectly honest, I slid down the whole hill on my back. When I finally got 

back to the lift after sliding for about an hour, I was so aggravated with falling and 

getting covered in snow that I decided to give up. I took off my snowboard and went to 

the restaurant to wait until we could leave. My sister and dad came in and said “Jake, 

you’ve been talking about snowboarding and how excited you were to try it but now your 

just sitting around doing nothing?” They finally talked me into going back out one more 

time just to give it one more try. 

That all happened about five years ago. Now, because my sister and dad 

convinced me to try it one more time way back then, snowboarding is one of my favorite 

things to do in the world. I can do black diamonds, jumps, rails, and other tricks. Also, I 

learned from the whole situation that giving up after trying something once is just a 

childish thing to do. You have to keep trying at something if you really want it to work out 

for you. Since I kept trying at snowboarding, i’ve gotten pretty good and I do it at least 

twice a year. I plan to keep on snowboarding until I die or I guess until I just can’t do it 

anymore.