I found something, something that let me go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
This activity that let my mind do the talking and my body do the action, free skiing.
Simply, it was a sport of my own.
This sport that I had been doing since a child, finally came around for some reason.
This kid, Matt Burhans, is my best friend to the day.
I remember the first time we went skiing together at the local ski hill.
The sensation brought to my heart whenever skiing with Matt was a feeling I had never felt before.
Competition in my life has been a key element to the development of my abilities.
Growing up playing soccer my entire life, I always wanted to win.
After winning three state championships with my town team, we were unstoppable.
For 5th graders, this game was something we all wanted more than anything.
And of course we ended up loosing the game by one goal.
Myself, I was never one to cry in a loss of a game, but some did.
So how can competition lead to freedom?
Only in one way it can in my mind, by challenging your own mind.
In skiing being challenging on myself only pushed me to reach the limits of my skiing ability.
Our emotions were only uplifted to the happiest they could be.
Going hand in hand with competition, a long lost cousin, stress.
Stress on the mountain is an emotion that I do not think I have ever felt.
In team sports, spectators defiantly over look the way a player plays his own style of game.
Whether a player plays an aggressive one, graceful, conservative and even mindless.
The statistics of the game always overpowered the decisions made by any coach.
But in free skiing, it is well, the opposite.
This sport that can never be controlled by regulation shows a blank page in the rulebook.
Instead, each skier can journalize their own style and ways to perform different tricks.
The style and ways that each skier skis will never be identical.
I am able to imagine a trick that I want to do in my mind differently then everyone else.
With the use of my own unique style, I produce my own version of skiing.
In our society, people want to be able to feel superior over others, always.
This is what team sports have done to the growing youth of our country.
No one is the better than anyone, everyone excels in something different.
Even though I am not the best skier out there, I do what my mind can create.
The ski community is able to bring out the best of my soul.
I always have loved being on the mountain with my best friends, doing nothing but skiing.
We have one reason to be on the mountain, ski and have a great time.
That 5 was sick!
You defiantly could take that to a 7!
Closing the gap between the mountain, and myself is what brings me closer to the physical mountain itself.
This moment brought a feeling of unknown as to how and why all of this had occurred.
This point in my life was the first opening of the many gaps that people have to conquer.
So then what did I want?
At the time, I had no clue.
Looking back now, I wanted to be free in my life.
The web connection of skiers that the mountain attracts, are the people I want to be free with.
Everyone needs to look through their own window of freedom to close all gaps in their lives.
I found a seal for these gaps, a way to clear that ski jump each and every time.
