This moment will just be another story

Everyone’s version of a day at the lake is different. Even my lake days vary from time to time depending on a couple different things. 

First, the lake. A lake day’s vibe depends heavily on which lake one is at. For example: spending time at a lake up north is luxurious and has a first class feel. It’s more because it’s usually happening during vacation, when everything is luxurious–because there is no work involved. Going to a lake close to home is temporary, usually for a day or maybe even a weekend. So for me, a stay at a nearby lake usually feels a bit more rushed, so the luxury of just enjoying the time and relaxing doesn’t really happen. 

Then you have the lake day activities that vary depending on what’s available. This past weekend I went on a jet ski for the very first time because my family doesn’t own one, so my friend’s family brought theirs. I went knee boarding for the first time as well. I highly recommend both; they were extremely fun. Knee boarding reminded me of skiing, something I haven’t done yet during a lake day this summer. 

I’m a skier. Tubing is great, but having to share a tube with your sister who is scared of tubing isn’t really the greatest time. Plus, once when I was a kid, the rope pulling the tube got pulled down into the water on a turn, and the rope came across and smacked me in the face, leaving a giant red mark running across my nose, which hurt a lot. It also gave me a nose bleed; I was sure I had broken my nose, although I hadn't. 

Luckily that hadn’t made me fear for tubing or the water so instead I took up the next challenging water sport I could think of - skiing. My family likes to ski, so I spent a summer learning how to get up and stay up, then a couple years enjoying the thrill of weaving back and forth in and out of the wake. 

There’s power in skiing. It’s a delicate balance between gliding atop the water like a pro and smacking face first into the water like a cartoon. I enjoy the tension it brings in my arms and my back, the balance and shift in my legs and the wind whipping through my hair as I try to focus on breathing. 

So I mastered that and it was time for me to learn to slalom ski, where you drop one ski and plant both your feet on one, not needing the two to balance. This is where I’m stuck now. Last summer, I spent some good hours getting up on two skis, going around once, dropping the one ski, planting my now loose foot on the other ski, and then promptly falling face first, somersaulting, or literally tripping into the water when I lost my balance trying to move back into the wake behind the boat. I would fall so forcefully that my long-sleeved swimsuit would be rolled up to my bicep. 

So hopefully skiing will be a part of my next day at a lake. Or tubing. Or paddleboarding. Or kayaking. All things I enjoy doing. 

And then there’s fishing, another great lake day activity and one that I know some people prefer over the other water sports. I also enjoy fishing, whether that be bobber or trolling. 

I am very thankful to live in the land of 10,000 lakes–and have access to a handful of them. As a side note, I will say I was slightly offended and upset when my Wisconsin-native roommate told me that Wisconsin actually has more lakes than Minnesota. 

My Determination: "This moment will just be another story someday." - Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower