The Choices You Make

Choices...

...life is full of them. They never end. You can't avoid them. You must make them. Some are huge. Like choosing a college, a first car, a house, getting married, etc. Some are small. Like what you want to eat for lunch. Or what outfit you want to wear this day. The truth of the matter is, that no matter what choices you make, they all are important. And sometimes it's even the smallest ones that are the game changers. Let me explain...

I'm pretty good at making good choices. But I'm also human. Pulling this statistic out of thin air, for every ten good choices I make, I make one dumb one. And sometimes the dumb one is choosing not to do something instead of doing it. And I had a very real experience recently of nearly making that very dumb decision.

Last Saturday night, I was invited by my brother to go snowboarding/skiing at Brandywine in Ohio. It was a late night thing with big discounts and such. As a kid, my love for snowboarding was there before I even owned one. During long days of sledding, I would at times stand in the sled and see how far I could make it down the hill without wiping out. Sometimes I was successful, most times I was not. Then on my 13th birthday, my parents got me a Walmart snowboard. As a kid, it didn't matter that it wasn't the real thing. Because now I could spend hours doing snowboard things on sledding hills. And boy did I ever.

Eventually, I needed to give the real thing a try. Opportunity arose in 2009. The Church in Pittsburgh held a young people's conference with a snowboard/ski trip to Seven Springs, PA. I was definitely going. Upon arrival, I wandered into the lodge, purchased my lift ticket, rented a snowboard, and off I went.

To say I was a total noob was an understatement. I barely made it off lifts clean, had some near misses with other people, tried not to hit trees, and wiped out many times. I made it to the end of the day relatively unscathed, but my biggest accomplishment was making it down a black diamond twice without falling. And I did all of this without wearing a helmet.

Being 17, I didn't think too much of it and thankfully, I didn't need one. Fast forward back to last Saturday night. I do not own a snowboard helmet. I have not been real snowboarding in 11 years. But I was tasked with bringing one along to give to Tim. When I arrived, I called him and asked him if he wanted to use it. He said no and asked the others with us. They also said no. He told me I could use it if I wanted. I pondered that thought for awhile.

Most of my life, I've liked to live on the edge. As a 7 year old, I free climbed to the tops of tall trees. I rode my bike through uncleared woods, ramped it high over hills, made hairline turns, and all with no helmet...most of the time. I took a jetski full throttle into 4 foot waves and sent it high into the air. I've played with fire in ways one shouldn't, performed very dangerous trampoline stunts that if they went wrong, I could've ended up in the hospital. I've ridden my bike into oncoming traffic through the dead center of intersections, through hordes of pedestrians...I think you get the point. So for me, it should've been a no-brainer to choose not to wear that helmet.

Throughout my 29 years, I've come to learn that I'm not invincible. And for some reason, I had a strong feeling that I should wear it. The problem was that if I did, it would be tight on my chin and I couldn't wear my full ski mask as it wouldn't fit. It was either wear the helmet and deal with a frozen face or don't wear the helmet and take on the consequences. Against my being, I wore the helmet.

I started off on the bunny hill to get my bearings back in order. First time down, I wiped out, but not hard. No big deal. I went back to the top, chose a spot clear of people and once I felt good I descended. Now Brandywine has what I consider a stupid design near the bunny hill. They allow for folks coming off the nearby bigger hill to intersect the bunny hill at a steep drop that without skill would send you into the the paths of all those coming down the bunny hill. Well in the middle of my descent, I was moving at full speed, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a kid cruising across the middle of the hill. She was not paying attention to where she was going nor looking to see if she was crossing anyone's path. I shouted at her hoping she would turn out of the way because any maneuver I made would cause me to hit her dead on. She turned her head to see me and her instinct told her to drop...right in front of me. There was nothing I could do. I was a dead duck. I turned the board to try and slow it for a softer impact, but due to my speed and lack of skill, it reversed on me. I collided full impact and was sent flying backwards over her. I landed on my backside, but then my head immediately snapped back and smashed the ground.

I looked up and thankfully all I saw was the stars in the sky. I lifted my head and looked over at the poor soul I just hit. "You good?" I asked. "Yeah and you?" she replied. "I'm good." And that was the truth. My head didn't hurt, I wasn't foggy, I felt fine. Yet as I sat there in the snow, my butt sore, my legs frozen, I couldn't help but think that if I hadn't made the choice to wear that helmet, that I may have ended my night in the ER. Possibly would've been diagnosed with my first ever concussion. That small choice that I made, thinking it was insignificant, turned out to be huge.

So next time you find yourself confronted with a seemingly small choice, don't take it lightly. It could greatly impact your life. Oh and by the way. Every choice your ever made in life has led you down the path you are currently on, to the place you are right now, which is reading this very sentence.