Sawyer Reuille-Dupont

Prompt
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time
when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the
experience?

Plans for the Future

Next year I plan to take a gap year primarily just to explore. Pretty much the only plan I have is to spend
the winter in British Columbia and travel the westside of the United States. Afterwards I look forward to
attending college for one of my greatest passions, ski and snowboard design.
 As the cloud of snow settled, I noticed his ski was shaking. At first I thought, Is he having a
seizure?! Yet it was much worse than that. This moment made me reflect on a lot of different life
choices… I had just seen someone's entire life get flipped upside down.

The day started like any other time we went to Velocity basin, right past Silverton. We woke up
and left early. I was with my two closest friends. Just us three were there building and hitting new jumps
for about an hour or so, waiting for our other friends to arrive, Kylin and Jesse, they showed up with
Cyrus Lewis. I didn’t know him very well, but I had skied with him a couple of times. About 30 or 40
minutes later, Quinn and I decided that it was about time for some powdery turns. So as anyone would,
we hiked up above the jumps for around 20 minutes. I led the way down floating in a white sea
surrounded by evergreens. We ducked into the trees and ended up finding one of the most perfect jump
spots, where there was a decent run-in and a very steep powdery landing. Instantly we started shoveling
and shaping the jump. Both Quinn and I were ready to hit some flips, he went first. Quinn over-rotated
and landed in what looked like the softest snow possible. We hit the jump around five more times
before the boys came over. I had the second to last try on the jump, I backflipped, landed for a second,
then tumbled head first straight into the snow, but I got up right away and was ready to go again. I
thought I would let someone else go before me, nobody wanted to, except for Cyrus. He jumped
(excitement ramped up), under-rotated, clipped his skis first, then dove straight into the ground head
first. Cyrus slid down the landing, hitting Quinn on the way down and ended up upside down at the
bottom of the hill.
“More Speed!” I heard from up the hill. It was dead silent at the bottom, until Cyrus painfully yet
softly wailed, “Help… Help”. All of us instantly got goosebumps. We all gathered around, adjusted him
ever so lightly in order to put him right side up. Then Cryus said something that shattered everything; “I
can’t feel my legs, I think I broke my neck.” We were insanely lucky he stayed conscious and he was
wearing a helmet, otherwise things would have gone much worse. Sage and Kylin rushed to the car in
their clunky ski boots and sped into town to get service. The responders seemed to take a lifetime to
arrive but it was only about forty five minutes to an hour. Collectively we helped them pack him up, then
he got put on a lot of pain killers, and flew away into the sunset. The boys and I, in complete shock,
stumbled back to the cars with blank expressions. Maybe ten words were said the entire car ride home.
Now Cyrus Lewis is parapalegic, he can’t walk, or use his hands. Yet despite the terrible reality
he has remained one of the most positive and generally awesome people I know. His plans of skiing and
climbing all of his life were lost, but now he wants to explore Europe which is very handicap accessible.
One really big thing that will stick with me for life is that perseverance and passion will allow me
to do whatever I could possibly want to do. Soon after I figured out that I should spend my future doing
something I love like designing and manufacturing snowboards. Experience and safety became some of
the most important aspects of my life, given that we weren’t prepared in most ways. For example we
didn’t realize that the snow wasn’t deep enough, and we barely knew what to do in this situation. I want
to be very educated and experienced, especially in this field. Lastly I gained a whole new perspective on
different people and how different situations shape their life through a very clear view of how fast
something can change. Now I apply this to my everyday life, for example when I meet new people I try
to be as positive and kind as possible no matter who they are or what they look like, because you never
know what they have experienced.