The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race that will offer us new paths to choose on our life journey and new trails on which to leave our footprints.

A Definitive Moment

There are first time moments in everyone’s life that can define them as a person. Some of these moments can be both definitive and memorable, but they all encompass a myriad of emotions and subsequently each moment shapes our life experience.

Her first and most profound defining moment came many years ago when she was a seventeen year old high school student in Montreal, Quebec. She was very much an achiever - successfully academic and decently athletic. Her concentration and interest  centered on making good grades and earning a place on the Basketball/Volleyball/High Jump/Broad Jump/ and Relay Race Teams. She excelled. However, the more she accomplished, the more she needed to achieve. The need to prove herself was overpowering. What she wasn’t aware of was that life was going to teach her a very powerful lesson.

Her next self-imposed challenge was to become a member of the school ski team. She took lessons - she practiced - her ability and confidence grew. She attended school organized, coed ski trips, every saturday, to Mont Tremblant and St. Sauveur des Monts - ski hill areas  in the Quebec Laurentian Mountains that provided regular, difficult, and expertise hill experiences.

One particular Saturday she was ready to attempt the difficult hill run at St. Sauveur. What she wasn’t prepared for was the introduction of a whole new realm of emotions and feelings within her that presented themselves on the chartered bus trip to the mountains. She had had no experience with interacting with the opposite sex, but that was about to change!

Her girlfriend, Judy, who was a fearless, accomplished skier, and who was far ahead of her in the dating game, sat with her on the bus.  In conversation Judy told her that Mark, one of the most popular boys in Grade 12, and one of the ski team members, wanted to ask her out on a date. Nor only was Mark popular,  he was extremely cute and a superb skier! Surprisingly, she was quite taken, and expressed such to Judy, also stating that she was going to do her utmost to ski very well so that Mark would be favorably impressed.

Shortly after their ‘talk’ Judy left their seat and spent the rest of the bus trip riding beside Mark. She assumed that Judy was attempting to boost her rating with Mark. What she hadn’t realized was that Judy was also interested in Mark and jealous of his interest in her.

At the top of the ski hill that day she was not aware of the significance in what was about to follow, as some defining moments are more difficult to identify than others. Mark, Judy and she stood sizing up the difficulty of the run. Both Mark and Judy appeared almost arrogantly confidant. She, on the other hand, suddenly realized that she was very much out of her comfort zone, but instinctively knew that she had to present well to ‘tweak’ Mark's interest. She was determined to ski with passion and expertise. Filled with fear, she pushed off the mountain top and somehow made her way down the slopes in absolutely perfect movement. She reached the bottom of the hill and realized that she had aced the run!

She turned, expecting to see Mark and Judy standing behind her. What she viewed instead was Judy's arrival at the bottom of the hill, in tears, having slid down on her derriere, not on her skis. Mark was comforting Judy and assuring her that he understood her fear of the mountain and that he would be happy to personally coach her towards making the ski team. And, if that wasn’t enough to digest, they walked off together to the ski chalet restaurant.

Judy's intentionally orchestrated portrayal of a ‘damsel in distress’ and Mark's macho-based reaction to, and naive acceptance of Judy's portrayal became the basis of her first profound defining moment.  She realized then that she had experienced, first hand, a lesson in human nature, manipulation, and betrayal.  What the event defined for her, at a very early stage of her life, was that one needs to be always aware that who they are as people, what their character is and how they portray themselves, is their personal integrity, with which they effect and shape those with whom they interact.

Recalling all of the above made her think about other moments in her life that had shaped and changed her. Traveling through the past, looking for turning points, has been clarifying. She can see what has made her the person she is, how far she has come, and where she has yet to head. Some changing moments have been good - some bad - but the end result has always been a sense of maturity and newfound wisdom. Some defining moments have yet to happen, but it’s the openness of the next moment that keeps things interesting and exciting, and maybe that’s the greatest life lesson of all.