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Wednesday, 12 Mar 08
It’s springtime, and if you’re like me, the ski season is passing by all too quickly. I am writing this to inform you, our faithful SheJumpers, of the progress and momentum that our organization has maintained over the past few months.
As the self-proclaimed legal side of SheJumps, it’s hard sometimes to feel like I’m right there in the thick of it — buried under registration paperwork, IRS applications, and financial statements can make it seem like I’m not on the “fun” side of this work but I often sit back and give thanks that I have even had the opportunity to work for such a righteous cause.
We are still waiting to hear from the IRS about our 501c(3) status and it is a delicate balance between anticipatory planning and definitive action — kept legal, of course — but the letters we receive from our readers help keep the fire alive.
On a more personal note, I would like to share with you the jump that I’m “jumping” right now. It was four long years at college that I spent waiting to be able to compete on the big-mountain freeskiing circuit and I moved to Salt Lake with the clear and distinct goal of training everyday on the world’s finest terrain: Alta and Snowbird. I can’t remember where I first read it, but I remembering reading once that the true intellectual is able to turn the proverbial steering wheel around when you know that something’s not right.
Basically, I keep falling. I don’t know what it is, but I went four years of skiing the craziest lines I could find — and not tomahawking once — to anxiously edging myself off of 10 footers. All of a sudden I’ve taken two of the worst falls of my life within two weeks of each other and both of them were in highly exposed areas. One of the falls, at the US Extremes in Crested Butte sent me tumbling over a 15 foot cliff, and I walked away without even a scratch. The second fall, in Eagle’s Nest at Alta, left me with deep bruising on my upper back and has pulled me out of the game for the last week and a half.
Sometimes the JUMP is to listen to the internal voice and play the difficult game of weeding out the fear from the laziness from the truth. I’m starting to see that my jump is probably to “jump” out of any ego-centric pride that says that I would be letting someone or something else down if I don’t go and compete at every single event like I told everyone I wanted to.
And through the whole ordeal I see the beautiful seed of SheJumps on a bigger and better 10-year mission that fuels the fire inside. To have women and girls from all over the world write to us and tell their stories of passion and ambition is worth more than any podium spot and it helps me see that my story is morphing. So sometimes you have to grow where you are planted. I’m young and healthy — for that I must be thankful — and while “givin’ ‘er” 100% is my number one passion, I’m trying to see the other side of the coin, to remind myself that if I ski, I want to win and everyone has got to log in their time. To do one thing and do it well or to do many things and excel in all of them, that is my dream. Small jumps, that is the way. It just so happens that my last name is Smallwood. Guess it’s fitting for the size of the tree I hit last week!
Whatever your jumps are this week, this season, or this lifetime, make sure you’re doing what’s right for you and not letting anyone or anything pressure you into something that’s not right for you. Live to win, and decide what that obstacle and prize is for you and you alone.
Message from the president
Comment on this Post
It’s springtime, and if you’re like me, the ski season is passing by all too quickly. I am writing this to inform you, our faithful SheJumpers, of the progress and momentum that our organization has maintained over the past few months.
As the self-proclaimed legal side of SheJumps, it’s hard sometimes to feel like I’m right there in the thick of it — buried under registration paperwork, IRS applications, and financial statements can make it seem like I’m not on the “fun” side of this work but I often sit back and give thanks that I have even had the opportunity to work for such a righteous cause.
We are still waiting to hear from the IRS about our 501c(3) status and it is a delicate balance between anticipatory planning and definitive action — kept legal, of course — but the letters we receive from our readers help keep the fire alive.
On a more personal note, I would like to share with you the jump that I’m “jumping” right now. It was four long years at college that I spent waiting to be able to compete on the big-mountain freeskiing circuit and I moved to Salt Lake with the clear and distinct goal of training everyday on the world’s finest terrain: Alta and Snowbird. I can’t remember where I first read it, but I remembering reading once that the true intellectual is able to turn the proverbial steering wheel around when you know that something’s not right.
Basically, I keep falling. I don’t know what it is, but I went four years of skiing the craziest lines I could find — and not tomahawking once — to anxiously edging myself off of 10 footers. All of a sudden I’ve taken two of the worst falls of my life within two weeks of each other and both of them were in highly exposed areas. One of the falls, at the US Extremes in Crested Butte sent me tumbling over a 15 foot cliff, and I walked away without even a scratch. The second fall, in Eagle’s Nest at Alta, left me with deep bruising on my upper back and has pulled me out of the game for the last week and a half.
Sometimes the JUMP is to listen to the internal voice and play the difficult game of weeding out the fear from the laziness from the truth. I’m starting to see that my jump is probably to “jump” out of any ego-centric pride that says that I would be letting someone or something else down if I don’t go and compete at every single event like I told everyone I wanted to.
And through the whole ordeal I see the beautiful seed of SheJumps on a bigger and better 10-year mission that fuels the fire inside. To have women and girls from all over the world write to us and tell their stories of passion and ambition is worth more than any podium spot and it helps me see that my story is morphing. So sometimes you have to grow where you are planted. I’m young and healthy — for that I must be thankful — and while “givin’ ‘er” 100% is my number one passion, I’m trying to see the other side of the coin, to remind myself that if I ski, I want to win and everyone has got to log in their time. To do one thing and do it well or to do many things and excel in all of them, that is my dream. Small jumps, that is the way. It just so happens that my last name is Smallwood. Guess it’s fitting for the size of the tree I hit last week!
Whatever your jumps are this week, this season, or this lifetime, make sure you’re doing what’s right for you and not letting anyone or anything pressure you into something that’s not right for you. Live to win, and decide what that obstacle and prize is for you and you alone.
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