It's All Downhill From Here

Here's another treasure from a few years back that is sure make you feel better about yourself by comparison. As a warning, this story is particularly bad so do not use this story to make any snap judgments about me. I wish things had happened differently.

At the time I had recently started a new job and was on my first business trip out to Colorado to meet with partnering company. We were in a session of afternoon meetings and presentations and we found ourselves waiting while the presenter was plugging into the projector.

I began small talking with one of the persons there who happened to be a very avid skier. He then began telling this story about how he and two of his friends had climbed this mountain to do some back woods skiing one afternoon. He went into this gripping story of how on the way down the slope an avalanche had broke and began chasing them down. They couldn't outrun the wall of snow so they headed towards the edges to try to get out of its path. He concluded this adrenaline filled story with him finally reaching the tree line off to the side.

I had this huge smile and wide eyes on my face as I exclaimed how incredible and awesome that experience must have been. The adrenaline junkie in me was jealous over the excitement he must have felt while outrunning an avalanche. I told him all this while trying to hold back a laugh because I thought that must have been the best time of his life and nothing could top such a fun experience.

Then everything changed. I watched as the face of this racer of avalanches became beet red. My laughter faded quickly. The story wasn't over.

"After the avalanche had passed I went back out onto the slope. After I found my first friend and realized it was already too late I had to decide if I should continue to unbury him or search for my other fiend."

That's it. That's how this story ended, with a twist I never imagined happening. Out of all the embarrassing moments and awkward situations I have found myself in this one left me feeling the worst. Here I was on one of my first business trips laughing as my host told me the story of how he lost two of his best friends in one swift swoop of an oversized snow bank. I was paralyzed, I couldn't say anything. I didn't want to make things worse.

I never went back. That was my first and only trip there. I can't help but think this has helped solidify my hatred for the winter season. Even though this occurred in July I feel completely justified in using this as a supporting reason as to why winter is the worst season of all. The more important thing to take away is to save you laughter until the end because there may be a punch line you just don't see coming, one that will knock the wind right out of you.