Chapter eleven: Celebrate all small victories

Boots are off, skis are strapped and packed, and I am home. It was a very… interesting way to finish the year, from a ski racing point of view at least. I’m calling it “interesting” because I think it’s the word that suits it best; I mean I could easily have used words like Brutal or, a Grind, but that’s not the way I want to look at it. Not the way I want to look at it anymore I should say because yeah, that’s how I spent a good chunk of the past few weeks seeing it. Just a rough, harsh, crappy reality that I was stuck in and I forgot to take it in stride, the good with the bad, and definitely did not find the silver lining. I’d have to say the biggest reason would be that my silver lining never seemed so shiny when the guys were putting gold around their necks… jealousy? Needing a reality check? A firm slap upside the head? Yes, yes, and…probably. Now looking to the title, I didn’t just have an epiphany one morning and boom, make a realization. It wasn’t some song playing on my ipod that gave me inspiration either, nor did I jolt awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat just knowing. What happened is that I spent a lot of time listening to people around me give me support, and I realized that they were telling the truth. A year in ski racing is made up of more bad days than good ones and more importantly the bad ones will disappear into nothing while the good ones will last and last until they get overshadowed by something just a little bit better. It also made me think that every year has rough patches, and the key is that I had to actually think hard about it because come spring series all that’s left are the memories of the good times. This all leads into the fact that I have started to celebrate the small victories when they come my way; taking the little personal wins and setting aside a moment of inwards celebration for them. Nothing crazy, no extreme fist pumps or touchdown dances but a bit of a reserved “well done Morgan”.


(aaaand here are some photo... all of which are pretty unrelated to skiing)

The same principal as bears stocking up before hibernating 

Warm and cozy... and also the view from our spin bike

Giant hands... or tiny bananas?

Just rolling some dice in the alley. A great group of guys to be on a team with.

I will be suiting up again in the New Year and this time racing overseas, thanks for stopping by. Hoping you all have an amazing holidays, all the best from me to you.

-Morgan