1. The author has been snowboarding since age six and became an instructor at age sixteen. He took his girlfriend snowboarding for the third time and wanted her to go to the top of the mountain, but she became scared and lost confidence after her first turn. 2. The author realized he needed to change and stop pushing people beyond their comfort levels after his girlfriend cried, saying he always pushes her too much. He learned to respect others' wishes. 3. The author struggled with being pushy as a kid, always wanting things to go his way. He now tries to be more accepting of others and their wishes to have healthier relationships.

1. Pushing Yourself
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8/29/2016
Pushing Yourself
Marcus McFall
Mrs. Stetter
Eng 111

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Pushing Yourself
I have been snowboarding ever since I was six years old. Snowboarding is
something that comes naturally to me just because of the time I’ve spent doing it. The day
that I turned sixteen I ran up to my local ski slope and begged for a job. By the time that my
girlfriend wanted me to teach her how to snowboard I had already been an instructor for
two years so I was getting to be fairly good at it. By the third time that I had taken my
girlfriend up to the mountain I knew that she was ready to go to the top to ride the harder
trails. The problem with taking people up to the top of the mountain for the first time is
that they can become scared by the height of the mountain and start to doubt themselves.
This is what had happened to her.
For someone that rides almost every day, going up the mountain is complete bliss.
The cool wind against your face along with the anticipation of the next run is magical.
Sitting next to my girlfriend, I could tell she was getting nervous as we got onto the lift. I
turned to her and asked her if she was doing okay. When she said fine I knew something
was wrong. She was perfectly fine on the board and she had the skills to ride, but she didn’t
have the confidence she needed to do it. The problems all started after the first turn. When
she got done with it all of her confidence was shattered. After we got to the bottom we got
in my car and I took her home. When we got there, she started crying and she told me how I
always push her too much. This was when I decided that I needed to make a change in my
life or I would risk pushing her and everyone close to me away. I learned an important

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lesson that day, to respect the wishes of others as they respect yours, and to not shove
people to places where they do not want to go.
My belief is that you shouldn’t push other people to do things that they don’t want to
do. This has always been something that I, personally, have struggled with and is
something I am trying to work on overcoming. Throughout my life I have never been a
pushy kid. I usually just stayed quiet and did things by myself. This led me to believe that
everything would always go my way and that I would always make up all of the rules. When
my friends would come over I could be very bossy and most of the time we would have to
do the things that I wanted to do just because I would boss them around. This is something
I didn’t recognize until years later when I was looking back on my life.
Being around people is a privilege and not a right, so when you’re with others you
have to treat them with the kindness and respect that you would wish to be treated with.
This is important for healthy relationships. As I’ve grown, something that I’ve been trying
to do is to become more accepting of others and their wishes. This has led to a happier life
for me and it has kept me out of situations that would have been difficult otherwise.