The Lightness of Being 六年2班 杨芷岸

                                             The Lightness of Being

杨芷岸 六二  30号

For me, skiing is not only a gain of happiness and a chance to avoid all the complexity that always troubles you, but also a true lesson for maturity.

Since I could remember: skiing is difficult. To ski profoundly is a challenge never to be accomplished. Mostly because amateurs are always not competitive. Never was I proud,  not even when other skiers praised me. Better not be, you’re not sure if you’re loosing control or bumping into a rock. Then you might as well be a joke.

Even as a child, I began to feel the philosophy within skiing. The regret you will feel if you missed a route so that you could only go on the path you obviously dislike.

Never can I forget the terrifying ten minutes on a slope with this crucible on my mind. I really hate that guy next to me, whom unluckily is my ski instructor. I was in so good a mood that I’m practically humming a tune. Then after a successful turn with a swoon of snow, there was this slope, right in front of me. Its claws were already over me, waiting for me to be a joke and then feel the texture of my body. Nice. First thing I did was to roll my eyes in this harsh and annoying way and stare at Killian with this awfully mean way. You could tell he wasn’t feeling sorry and regretful. He was almost laughing：“Come on, it’s so easy it is boring” Yeah, naturally, for him. Three minutes, that’s how long we stood with this Wuthering wind, not a lot, but certainly enough for me. Dozens of true professionals were passing within a blink of an eye, in their best mood, and poor Killian was probably in despair. I thought of all the possibilities to manage to get off this horrible mountain—You see, it was way past lunch time. And after the moments of shivering both outside and in, you know what? Skiing down is the easiest and certainly most reasonable way. So that’s what we did. Thanks to the teenagers passing by, not my courage. I doubt if I even have this thing. The whirls they made from braking hit me suddenly: What am I, a coward? Having faced the inhuman torture from my ballet instructor, Anne Yang is aware of dying on black zone? I am a joke. Then we skied, and it was peculiarly quite fun and thrilling.

It was until now that I seemed to realize and understand the sentence Carole Lombard once quoted “There is nothing I’m afraid of.” Sure, why should there be? Yes, you fall, so what? Get up, readjust your goggles, grab your poles, brush the snow off your jacket, head up, and then go. No hesitation.

Different methods of skiing aren’t the only things I learned in Zermatt. Majorly I tried and succeeded the way to show “I don’t care.’’ Well Swiss locals are known for their selfishness and artificialness. So the whole world knows about the Novel Corona virus. And the Swiss were probably the first to detest Chinese but the last to show it. Interestingly, the hotel we are staying in—The Grand Hotel’s lobby used to have this jasmine perfume, which is considered normal. Recently, the scent becomes this nasty smell which obviously comes from disinfectant. Also, they never even speak to us Chinese anymore. I guess they probably want to kick us out, and it’s not their fault at all. There’s nothing to do about it, if you worry all day long, they will think you are plague, but to leave the burdens and just go near the glaciers and really let go is the best way for settling the matters.

As I always say in my compositions about skiing, the one great thing about skiing is that you can forget about all your troubles and all your cares and just really let go. If furious, ski faster, If joyous, try to enjoy the view around you. For the next couple of hours within snow, recover your injuries inside and think.

For God’s sake forget about illness, poverty and war, try very hard to make you exclaim “ Life is wonderful”.