I love my job!!

So it's official I love my job!! Wednesday we learned how to bucket people and also tether them in the sit down ski's. This was a beast to figure out because the person is essentially teeter-tottering trying to stay balanced while you allow them to ski forward til you can get tension in the tether. It takes time to figure out but we spent all day loading and unloading people and tethering down the mountain.

The best part of yesterday was that KADEP one of our groups we work with was coming in to get themselves fitted for the ski's. At first I was really nervous because it was our first group and I didn't know how to talk to them or act and I was afraid I would say something stupid. I did my first wheel chair transfer yesterday and that went well. We got my participant Sue fitted in a ski and ready to go. Sue was so beyond excited to be up in the mountains and on the slopes again. Before her accident she was a kick ass tele skier and cross country skier so she was missing the snow.

Today we actually went on the mountain with Sue and that was a totally new and exciting experience. She hardly ever stopped smiling which was awesome, she had such a great attitude. The hardest part about working with Sue was that she was cognitively on point. She knew everything that was going on and what she wanted or needed but her issue was that she couldn't get the words from her head to her mouth. She mostly made sounds that you could kind of tell what words they were but when we didn't understand which was most of the time she would get so frustrated. I can't even imagine what it would be like to know exactly what I wanted to do and not be able to actually say it to the person. We finally decided to write out the alphabet on a piece of paper and she would spell out for us what she was trying to say. This was great because our conversation got away from only yes/no questions to actually hearing about her life more and her love for skiing. Today was so fun and kind of tiring but I can't even explain how awesome it feels to see someone like Sue grinning for 5 hours straight. Knowing that I got to be a part of such a great experience is just so rewarding. The good news was that I felt really confident on the lesson. Sarah the lead instructor allowed me to take the lead on loads and unloads every once in awhile and I didn't mess them up so that was great. I really enjoyed working with Sarah she is around my age and has an awesome personality and is so easy to get along with. Overall I absolutely LOVED today and had such a great time that I can't wait to get back on the mountain with whoever comes our way and shoot down the mountain.