I have loose memories to the time that I learned skiing. It was in the early 2000, my parents had taken me and my brother to Obereggen in the north of Italy. A ski resort perfectly suited for young families, that soon became a home away from home. We went skiing every year for at least one week, mostly around eastern. It was a week my brother and I were longing, long before it was even closely time to consider thinking about going there again. But as you let the world spin, you inevitably end up at the same point again. So for the majority of my early years at some point it was time to strap the skis onto our car and sit in the back seat, patiently waiting as we drove 8 hours or more towards Italy.
Having left early in the morning, we usually made it to our hotel around noon, with the goal of being on the hill at 2 and enjoying a well deserved plate of Spaghetti Ragu. This was usually the way we started our trip and it became a ritual that stays unchanged until this day. Skiing around eastern also meant that on Sunday my brother and I woke up to a room full of hidden sweets that were waiting to be found. Just to go skiing shortly after, in order to find the Eastern Bunny that, of course just by chance, had decided to go skiing here as well.
All the good memories that I have from this place and all the love I experienced during our stays make for a very warm feeling inside of me, seeing the temperatures dropping, the green grass being covered in a white blanked of snow, hearing the sounds of a chairlift being mechanically disconnected from its supporting steel wire, and even the smell of freshly applied wax onto a pair of skis makes me remember these early days where I made my first steps on winter mountains.
Walking up to the old wooden lodge that is the home of the snow school I felt the power of the morning sun. It had increased a lot since the cold days at the beginning of the year and we all had missed the warm energy the sun provided. We were well into our spring season, with the days getting longer and even the chairlifts running for an extra 30 minutes to give everyone the chance to make to most out of their day.
The mornings always followed the same procedure. First, we were expected to line up and make sure everyone made it to the hill in time. Second, we were told what age group we would be teaching that day and third we got a briefing about the upcoming day. I was told to meet again at 09:45 at the Tiny Tigers Daycare, where our youngest guests got to do their first trys on the snow. Teaching Tiny Tigers meant having to be there earlier than the normal meeting time for the Kids Campus at 10:30, this also meant I wouldn’t be able to take part in the daily training sessions provided by a more senior member staff each morning, something that I enjoyed a lot on my days on the mountain.
After a couple of runs on the freshly groomed and not yet busy slopes, I went to the Daycare in order to meet Katlyn, my 4 year old partner for the day. I remember her mom saying to me that she is “a fun little skier” and that we would have a good time together. “Just one thing” she said before leaving for her own lesson, “Katlyn would really like to meet the Easter Bunny.” Right, I thought, it’s Easter Sunday.
After making sure she was dressed appropriately for the current conditions, Katlyn and I set out to what eventually turned into a big hunt for the Easter Bunny across the whole ski resort, reminding me of the time my brother and I set out to find this little guy in Obereggen, some 15 Years ago. Katlyn making sure to leave me very impressed with how good a 4 year old could ski, while also making complex strategies to always think ahead of what could be the next move an Easter Bunny would make, going skiing on his day while not wanting to be found. I knew that the Ski Resort had made an effort to put an Eastern Bunny on the slopes, so now we just needed to find him…
During my first week in Banff I met the right people. Sitting in the hostels common room and chatting to everyone that was walking in, I immediately had the feeling of a common band between us. We all arrived in this town for let it be different reasons why we left home, but all having the same ideas of how our winter should look like. Today I can say, that most of the people I met during my first hours in this town became my closest friends and where the people that helped me out so much in order to archive my dreams here. If it wasn’t for them pointing me into the right direction, I wouldn’t have started my certification to become a ski instructor, or them putting in a good word for me in order to get hired by Sunshine Village Snow School, nor having the courage to talk to who would later become my boss at Ultimate Sport, the ski shop I was working at.
I remember my first time going skiing on what I was set to be the place where I would spend a majority of my winter. The bus left early to drive us to Sunshine Village Ski Resort and we were running trying to make it, already wearing our ski boots. Still catching my breath, I looked out of the window at the passing scenery, that I now saw for the first time. Endless mountains connected by steep valleys covered in trees and untouched snow everywhere I looked. This was only beaten by standing on the top of the mountains only a couple of minutes later. Sheer endless peaks everywhere I was looking and not a single sign of human civilization. Trying to not be too distracted I made my first turns on Canadian snow, ticking off another item on my little list of dreams that I was carrying with me.
I didn’t have to wait long to get the opportunity to cross off another item. The FIS ski racing circus had set up their tends in nearby Lake Louise, a ski race that I had been watching every year from our couch back home in Germany. Knowing a lot of the athletes from countless races I have watched, it was a special feeling being there to watch them archiving incredible speeds trying to beat each others times. Being able to share this experience with the people I had med and that already were friends was one of the first highlights of my winter.
As the season went on, the town became busier and I became more comfortable with handling my two dream jobs. I was motivated to learn as much as I can and I enjoyed absorbing the feeling of being fully immersed in my small world, where everything was about when to ski next, what to do with your friends on a Sunday after work, or tying to see the northern lights on a clear night, spending hours wrapped in blankets in the cold. There where many days where I started my day working on the ski hill in the morning until the afternoon and then joining my team at Ultimate Sports to support them for the busy hours in the evening. Standing in the middle of our store, giving out equipment and chatting about skis, I couldn’t have imagined a place where I would have rather been that day. Closing for the night and saying goodbye to my coworkers that quickly became friends as well, walking up the slippery snowy path towards my apartment, I felt proud of myself and all the others, having left their country in order to work in this place that we made our home.
There are countless memories that I could mention at this point in oder to try to describe what it felt like living alongside these amazing people and waking up every morning knowing that there was so much to look forward to during the day. But I believe it is this feeling of home that I felt during my six months in Banff that is describing my experience the best. Walking the streets I was often thinking of that night I arrived, not knowing how my experience was going to be, now feeling that this is where I was belonging. One week after another started to pass where I didn’t even think of the day that I would have to pack my bags and move away for a new adventure on the horizon.
Looking back now, I realize that a change in my life was due for quite some time. It’s now over 3 years ago, that I graduated university and not taking the step out of my comfort zone that I actually wanted. But this is me speaking now out of a position where I can comfortably look back on the changes I eventually was ready to make. But perhaps I wasn’t ready that summer 3 years ago and I’m also thankful for the time I got to learn so much about myself, ultimately preparing myself for what was coming ahead.
I decided to quit my well paid and secure job at the beginning of 2022. The opportunity was long there before I saw it. My trip across the Atlantic Ocean, on a ship that I had been dreaming of for more than 20 yeas, made me realize that this was the opportunity I had been waiting for and I would regret not following through. It wasn’t easy to step out of what had become a very comfortable life and I won’t say that there weren’t times where I was questioning myself on what I had planned. But ultimately I had this vision of me traveling with a couple of goals in the back of my head that now seemed to be within reach.
Having crossed off a majority of the items on my list, I have now realized that this wasn’t the point of my trip. I’m sure it was the motivation in the beginning and helped me to get going. But the real reason I started on this trip was because I wanted to challenge life and see what it had in store for me. Feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing what I wanted, professionally as well as in my private life, I took everything pretty personal and blamed myself for not being good enough. Stepping away from this and by focusing on what I knew I would enjoy, I developed trust in myself and my abilities. But also I regained a certain trust in life, that if you create opportunities and ask the person you are to give yourself the courage in order to dare making your dreams a reality, Life, as hard as it can be, can also provide you with everything you need and maybe even more.
I don’t mean to say that you should stop doing what your are doing right now and quit the life that you are living in order to make every dream a reality. And I also don’t believe that you need to travel to a country far away to be happy. But I do believe that stepping out of a situation where I was definitely not happy and having the courage to try something new opened my eyes to be able to see that I was in the position to take life into my own hands and open my eyes to see what it had to offer. I know that I didn’t fully earn this myself, having the resources and the freedom to make these kind of changes in my life is a privilege that I was mainly born into. But the experience of making my own decisions and dealing with the consequences took away the kind of helplessness I was experiencing before. It made me realize that life will never be perfect and there will be things that won’t work out the way you have planed them. But the things that do, alongside with everything that you weren’t expecting, for me, were worth giving it a try.
As the day came to en end in the ski resort, and Katlyn and me having searched the whole mountain, we didn’t actually find the real Easter Bunny. We were only able to find the “fake-lookalike-helpers” he (or in this case the ski resort) had set out that day in oder to get some undisturbed skiing, as Katlyn concluded. Still being pretty proud of our day, we returned to the Tiny Tigers Daycare, leaving me with a great feeling of just having created a wonderful day for a little skier, just as I always had the privilege of experiencing it.
