Objectively, I dont need to shovel the driveway before I go skiing.
All the cars are plenty capable to deal with the four inches that fell overnight.
It had started snowing as we all walked home from partying the night before.
We were loud, exuberant and optimistic about life, skiing, making content for a living.
I vaguely remember Maddie mooning someone, maybe Glenn Plake had started a snowball fight inside a hotel?
A crew shoveled the sidewalk in front of the hotel as Doug smoked.
The conversation wandered, and Im pretty sure I used the word meta incorrectly.
But I do remember it tempering my exuberance from that first dive into ski culture.
I was young and stoked.
We had a big gravel driveway that we never shoveled.
My life was one dimensional, but I was absolutely in love with that one dimension.
Skiing was my everything, and it was enough, for a few years.
Until I felt the facade slipping.
I watched friends who had been dedicated to winter lose their seasons to injuries.
I made other friends, friends who had more going on in their lives than skiing.
I felt the burnout creeping in.
I havent had a season-ending injury, yet.
I havent gotten lost in the maze of softcore substance dependence that plagues so many skiers.
Instead I found things outside of skiing that make skiing more sustainable for me.
And thats why I shovel the driveway when I dont really need to.
If I was a therapist Id have a better explanation for it.
Id talk about community, and shared purpose, and centering myself.
But for me, its best encapsulated in shoveling the driveway before I go skiing.
Because skiing isnt the most important thing.
Its not the sole goal.
I dont need to put chasing turns first anymore.
I shovel the driveway because my housemates need to get to work.
I shovel the driveway because my partner might need to go somewhere during the day.
There didnt use to be a later for me.
I was focused on the next turn, the next line, the next shot.
I was happy to push the mundane to the back burner in pursuit of the all-consuming ski experience.
Some people can get away with only being skiers all of their lives.
They can focus on it and live in it as an identity.
Some of them end up starting in ski movies.
And some have their ski-centered lives cut short by the very experience they pursue.
Most of us cant bejustskiers forever sustainably.
Thats who I want to grow up to be.
Its a powder day.
The turns will be soft once I shovel the driveway.
