This life chose me more than I chose it.
I wrote the following in the waning months before I ultimately had to close Gord’s Ski and Bike back in 2013.
One day, back at Bromont in my late 20s, after my parents died, I gave a ski lesson to an older gentleman…
At that point in my life, I was a full-time ski instructor and I was struggling to find honor in what I did for a living. I had dropped out of university a few years earlier and had no career to speak of… Except that, I knew how to ski with my eyes closed and that it was the only thing I was ever really good at.
The man walks through the ski chalet, shuffling in his rear entry boots, his skis crossed as if he was auditioning for a Warren Miller gag reel… I looked away, “don’t pick me,” I thought… But naturally, it was my turn and so I walked towards the quad mumbling to myself about how I’d rather be elsewhere.
So the lesson began and as I had done once too often that season I decided to phone it in and do the bare minimum… And so I did. But halfway through the lesson, watching him do his best I had what some may call an epiphany and thought “Maybe I should give him my best”. So on our second chairlift ride up, I finally asked him what brought him to want to learn how to ski at this point in his life (he was in his early sixties). He took the time to tell me that this was his third attempt at getting out of his car at the resort, but that this time he was able to. He added that it was very difficult emotionally for him to walk up to the ski school counter that day and ask for a ski lesson.
When I inquired as to why this was so difficult he went on to tell me this story that I’ll never forget… Of how he and his wife had fallen in love with the idea of skiing over thirty years ago after watching an old James Bond movie but that their work had gotten in the way of their dream… He continued that many years ago they had promised each other that this is one dream that they would strive to make a reality… They set a goal and a time frame to eventually sell their businesses and spend the rest of their lives skiing together.
When I asked him where she was he replied that they never got to that point in time because before they could live out their dream she contracted bone cancer and he spend the last years taking care of her and selling off the businesses… That’s when he shared with me that in the days before she slipped into her terminal coma she made him promise her that he’d go and learn how to ski for both of them.
He cried as he added that he was there that day for the both of them… That I wasn’t just teaching him that day, but that I was teaching both of them.
That’s when I found the honor in being a ski instructor. That’s when I became a really good ski instructor. That’s when I realized that no matter what you may think of what you do… If you do it right you CAN do good.
That day has led me to where I am now. The desire to do my best to help people in the only way I know how. It hasn’t been easy. It has meant following a strange path… I’ve made so many mistakes on my way here. I have many regrets and all I have to show for it is a struggling business, Boomer and so many good, good friends. Friends of such kindness and quality that I can hardly believe my good fortune. I am humbled that so many of you care so much for me. I hardly deserve your friendships but I cherish every single one of them with all my heart.
No matter what becomes of me, no matter what becomes of my business or my career, I know I did some good.
Thank you for standing by me.
JF® 
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