They Never Let Me Quit

"Get up, Laura! Get up!" yelled my friend, "You aren't staying on the ground. Now get up!" My body ached, my knees were bruised, and my fingers were numb from the cold. I had snow in my hair that was turning to ice. I looked back at where I had come and I wasn't even halfway down the mountain yet. My usually laid-back and easy going friend had turned drill sergent as he insisted on teaching me to snowboard. Granted, I had really wanted to snowboard and I really wasn't sure how hard it would be. It's hard. You fall a lot. You fall forward and you fall backward. Sometimes you even fall sideways and slide for awhile. Wipeout are a necessity when learning to snowboard. Had I known that, I probably would have put and extra layer of pants on to cusion my fall. Now laying on the mountain, in the midst of probably my 30th wipeout, I did not want to get up again. I was done. I kept falling and my legs were getting tired. There was no way I was going to be able to snowboard down the rest of the mountain. My very patient friend had been with me most of the day and had challenged me to try a green mountain (beginer mountain but not a bunny hill). He was an excellent snowboarder and could carve the mountain with ease. He was even doing jumps and tricks earlier. He was taking the time to teach me and his advice was overflowing. But right now he was patiently waiting for me to get up and try yet again. Somehow I managed to pull myself back up and try again. By the end of the day I had gotten better for sure. I had also fallen well over 100 times and probably need to ice every part of my body. The story doesn't end there. A couple weeks later he took me snowboarding again. More of me friends went and they all challenged me to try again, the green. I was so scared thinking of all the falling I would probably be doing. As I sat next to my "snowboarding drill sergent" he gave the coach talk and told me I would be fine, that I had it this time, that I would be so much better now. He was right. I went down that mountain with ease. I fell maybe once. Everything was right. After I was got to the bottom (in about a quarter of the time it took me last time) I ready to see his reaction as I was so proud of myself. "What did you think?" Did you see?" I asked. "Ya I saw. You looked great. So ready for the blue (intermediate)?" All my friends took me up and I did the blue as well. My friends stayed with me and pushed me when I needed to get out of my comfort zone. They keep me motivated.
The message of this post is not new to you I'm sure. However I think sometimes I forget that there are people who care more about me than I care about myself at low times. I even think of my support back at home and how much they have encouraged me on my journey. They never let me quit.