jumping.
That’s where I draw the line. No way would I do something that crazy! But I do want to learn how tofly a plane and a helicopter.
And I want to skydive. (Okay, maybe it’s not much of a line.) My “to do” list of adventures is constantly growing. Each one
I check off the list emboldens me to go even further the next time.
I finally learned how to ski after making
Last Holiday
. Around the time we were filming, I learned how to snowboard, but a few months later some crazy Canadian friends of mine
were going skiing at Mt. Whistler, British Columbia, and they invited me along. Now this I had to try. As a Jersey girl from
the ’hood, I never really saw skiing as a possibility for me. You don’t see too many African-Americans in the Winter Olympics.
But when I was little, I used to be fascinated by the ski jumping on ABC’s
Wide World of Sports
. Watching those athletes soar through the air made me dream about doing the same thing.
Another Big Ass Mountain
We rented a big chalet at the ski resort, and the first day I took a lesson on the bunny slope while my friends skied the
more advanced runs. I’d just about mastered the snow plow, and thought I knew enough of the basics to join my friends on the
grown-up slopes the next day. One of my girlfriends is a licensed skiinstructor, so I figured I’d stick close to her. But
I wasn’t expecting them to take me all the way to the top of the mountain, and it was a loooong way down to the next chair
lift. We’re talking miles of trail. I could’ve killed ’em!
The only way off of this thing was to ski. I tried to follow my ski lesson from the previous day and do my turns, but everything
I tried just landed me in a face plant. I must have fallen ten times over the course of a few dozen yards. I was starting
to get wet, and cold, and incredibly frustrated. I could see a couple of my friends in the distance talking and imagined the
conversation was going something like this:
“Oh, my God, do you think she’s gonna lose it?”
“Yeah, she’s definitely about to lose it!”
Then my friend the ski instructor shouted, “You can do this, Dana! You can do this!”
Move Your Head Out of the Way
I wasn’t so sure. It was like I had some mental block. My body just wouldn’t follow through on what my brain was telling it
to do. I stood up, looked around me, and realized that the next chair lift was still about a mile and a half down the mountain.
I either had to ski down to it or walk in my heavy ski boots. I was stillconsidering my next move when this little kid who
couldn’t have been more than five years old skied past me without any poles. He was skiing alongside his dad, and the little
boy asked him, “Dad, do you think we could make this the last trip down?”
“Sure, son,” the dad said. “You did great today.”
At first I thought, “What kind of Norman Rockwell painting am I in? Please, Lord, just get me off this mountain!”
Then it occurred to me: If this little kid could do it without any poles, then, dammit, I could do it, too! And all of a sudden
I just started skiing. I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing, I was just doing it. I just went for it, and all those thoughts
in my head disappeared. It was even getting to be kind of fun. I made it down to the chair lift in one piece, cheering, “I
did it, I did it!”
Looking back, I realize that I was letting my mind block me. Overthinking is just another form of fear. You almost have to
give yourself a mantra and lock into it. As soon as I had that one thought—“I can do this”—I stopped overthinking and it just
happened for me. Instinct took over. I started trusting in my body to get me down the mountain. Something just clicked inside
me. I don’t know how. It was that one moment, looking at that child, and I was thanking God for it.
I love skiing now. I was always one of thesepeople who went to hot places for vacations, and now I enjoy
That’s where I draw the line. No way would I do something that crazy! But I do want to learn how tofly a plane and a helicopter.
And I want to skydive. (Okay, maybe it’s not much of a line.) My “to do” list of adventures is constantly growing. Each one
I check off the list emboldens me to go even further the next time.
I finally learned how to ski after making
Last Holiday
. Around the time we were filming, I learned how to snowboard, but a few months later some crazy Canadian friends of mine
were going skiing at Mt. Whistler, British Columbia, and they invited me along. Now this I had to try. As a Jersey girl from
the ’hood, I never really saw skiing as a possibility for me. You don’t see too many African-Americans in the Winter Olympics.
But when I was little, I used to be fascinated by the ski jumping on ABC’s
Wide World of Sports
. Watching those athletes soar through the air made me dream about doing the same thing.
Another Big Ass Mountain
We rented a big chalet at the ski resort, and the first day I took a lesson on the bunny slope while my friends skied the
more advanced runs. I’d just about mastered the snow plow, and thought I knew enough of the basics to join my friends on the
grown-up slopes the next day. One of my girlfriends is a licensed skiinstructor, so I figured I’d stick close to her. But
I wasn’t expecting them to take me all the way to the top of the mountain, and it was a loooong way down to the next chair
lift. We’re talking miles of trail. I could’ve killed ’em!
The only way off of this thing was to ski. I tried to follow my ski lesson from the previous day and do my turns, but everything
I tried just landed me in a face plant. I must have fallen ten times over the course of a few dozen yards. I was starting
to get wet, and cold, and incredibly frustrated. I could see a couple of my friends in the distance talking and imagined the
conversation was going something like this:
“Oh, my God, do you think she’s gonna lose it?”
“Yeah, she’s definitely about to lose it!”
Then my friend the ski instructor shouted, “You can do this, Dana! You can do this!”
Move Your Head Out of the Way
I wasn’t so sure. It was like I had some mental block. My body just wouldn’t follow through on what my brain was telling it
to do. I stood up, looked around me, and realized that the next chair lift was still about a mile and a half down the mountain.
I either had to ski down to it or walk in my heavy ski boots. I was stillconsidering my next move when this little kid who
couldn’t have been more than five years old skied past me without any poles. He was skiing alongside his dad, and the little
boy asked him, “Dad, do you think we could make this the last trip down?”
“Sure, son,” the dad said. “You did great today.”
At first I thought, “What kind of Norman Rockwell painting am I in? Please, Lord, just get me off this mountain!”
Then it occurred to me: If this little kid could do it without any poles, then, dammit, I could do it, too! And all of a sudden
I just started skiing. I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing, I was just doing it. I just went for it, and all those thoughts
in my head disappeared. It was even getting to be kind of fun. I made it down to the chair lift in one piece, cheering, “I
did it, I did it!”
Looking back, I realize that I was letting my mind block me. Overthinking is just another form of fear. You almost have to
give yourself a mantra and lock into it. As soon as I had that one thought—“I can do this”—I stopped overthinking and it just
happened for me. Instinct took over. I started trusting in my body to get me down the mountain. Something just clicked inside
me. I don’t know how. It was that one moment, looking at that child, and I was thanking God for it.
I love skiing now. I was always one of thesepeople who went to hot places for vacations, and now I enjoy
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