Imagine you were skiing, lost your family, and found yourself at an impassable cliff. In March 2018, I went skiing with my family and friends in Stratton, Vermont. There was not a lot of snow, but due to the lateness of the season, there was also an excessive amount of ice. At the top of the icy mountain, my friends claimed they knew every trail. We made a plan and told our parents that we would ski down on our own, and meet up with our parents at the base. Our parents wanted to take the easy route down the mountain, and we wanted to explore some of the connecting off-piste trails. What could go wrong? 

We came across a fascinating-looking trail through the woods that I was captivated by. When we began skiing through the trees, I knew this run was going to be very different from the others. In the ominous path ahead, I could see the trees blocking the sun like a massive wall. There were no other skiers or snowboarders around us and it felt like we had discovered a secret level in a video game. We progressed onwards, hoping to find an exit from this trail onto a main ski run. As we turned a corner, a massive tree was lying on the ground and blocking our path. Since we were unable to ski around the tree, we had no choice but to go over it. We removed our skis, threw them over the massive tree trunk, and climbed over. After we were on the other side of the tree, we saw a small break in the tree line and sunlight was gleaming through it. We carried our skis towards the sunlight only to be met with another obstacle in our path! In front of us, was a cliff dropping probably 15 -20 feet below us. 

We were all scared and nervous; how would we get down? Where were our parents? Why did we decide to go off-piste?  There was no clear way to get down, and our parents were nowhere in sight. While questioning our life choices, we heard the crushing of ice in the distance. Suddenly we saw two snowboarders on the trail at the base of the cliff who luckily saw three kids alone and scared at the top. The kind boarders removed their snowboards and climbed up the cliff to help rescue us. One by one we each threw our skis down and with their help slid down the cliff carefully until we were all reunited with our skis and back on a marked ski trail. After our escape, we skied to the bottom and met up with our nervous parents who had been worriedly searching for us all over the mountain. 

This experience truly impacted my life and demonstrated the consequences that could happen after you make a choice. Sometimes consequences lead to important life lessons that you could reflect upon and grow from. In this instance, I chose to not take the easy route down and as a result, I was scared and got lost. You could take the set, established route, or go off-piste and literally carve your own path. You could take the safe and protected trail, or a more dangerous, adventurous path. Either way, you have to navigate your own path to the bottom of the mountain no matter which trail you choose to travel down.