To be honest, even I feel like the question is a little odd. 

I fully prepared to be nervous on the first visit to Big SNOW American Dream back in October 2020. It was my first time back on skis in about six years, so being nervous that day seemed perfectly fine to me. Who knew what the day would hold or how well I would do? I was nervous to find out and that was fine. At least, it was fine that time.

Now, it's March 1st and I've been out a bunch so far this season. Well, it's been eight days for me, but that seems to be fine with this being my rebuilding season, along with being the season of COVID-19. Not to mention some not feeling well and car trouble being thrown into the mix. Sure, I think eight days isn't terrible, especially since I have more planned after this. 

In any case, I realized on my birthday, February 22nd, while skiing at Pico Mountain here in Vermont that I was nervous yet again as I was getting ready to head to the chairlift. Actually, I started feeling that way as I waiting for my turn at the ticket window, which wasn't a long wait, mind you. It was an off-holiday Monday, so waiting was definitely not a thing that day.

To be 100% honest, I don't know where the feeling came from.

It's true, I am still lacking the same confidence I once had in my skiing abilities. But, that's something that I am aware of. I'm not sure if it's possible to be nervous about something like that if one is aware of it and accepts it. To that point, on the day I was at Pico I skied pretty well, I think. Sure, I wasn't the best on the mountain, but I was totally holding my own.

That line of thinking also holds true with accepting that skiing and snowboarding are both dangerous. One doesn't have to be out in the backcountry or getting big mountain lines for the sports to be dangerous. I have accepted that even more this year by wearing a helmet for the first time. Again, I accept the fact that skiing is dangerous, so I don't think that's it, either.

I should point out real quick that this wasn't an issue before my time off from skiing. The last I skied before this season was in 2014, though before that, as well as that time, I wasn't a nervous skier. I mean, of course, I was a little bit when I first started learning how, but I was just learning how and was a kid. I don't think it's wrong to say that a lot of folks are nervous when trying new things.

But, experience makes that nervousness go away. Granted, I hadn't had any skiing experience for six years, but that shouldn't matter. Should it?

I was also thinking that the nervousness might be based on embarrassment. I know that I don't look the best out there, but that shouldn't matter either, right? I tell people all the time it's not about how one looks because everyone is different. Also, everyone has to be a beginner, so looking like a beginner is something we have all been through. Now, there is the thought that I'm not a beginner, so I shouldn't look like one. But then, I really don't care about that, either.

That also holds true with falling and being embarrassed by a fall. Though if you have been following Ski Rex Media for a bit, you know that I push "Embracing The Biff," which just means that one should embrace their fall and move on, no worries. That's how I have always skied. I have even been more upset that there was no one around to witness a fall. So, I'm thinking that's not it.

Speaking of falling, though, that's another reason anyone would be nervous no matter what level they're at, though that more falls in line with the danger of the sport that I was talking about at the beginning. Luckily for me, I have only fallen once this season, which resulted in twisting my wrist a little bit, but nothing major. All "Real Man" jokes aside, the wrist twist was literally something I was able to just put some ice on and it was fine.

So far it doesn't seem as if any of this stuff is correct.

I did think that I was confusing excitement for nervousness. Though the more I think about it, the more I think that can't be right. I'm old enough to know the difference, I think. I mean...I could be 100% wrong about that or any of this, but still. I'm pretty sure I know the difference. Actually, I'm still excited after the nervousness subsides, so I'm fairly certain I'm not confusing the two.

In the end, it might be a combination of those things, none of those things, something in between, or something else altogether. Fact is, I was always nervous as a person, anyway. So, it's likely that it's just there after a lifetime of being nervous about other things, almost like a habit that I wasn't aware of having. That's okay, though, except for one thing.

Why would I be nervous about something I enjoy?

I have no answer to that question. Especially since, as I said earlier in this piece, I was never nervous about skiing before except for when I was learning how to do it, or maybe even when I was tackling harder terrain for the first time as a teenager and adult.

I really don't know what it is, but the question in the title of the piece still stands...does everyone get nervous on a ski day morning?

Okay, I am quite sure it's not everyone, but is there anyone else that feels this way when they go out for a day on the mountain? Just so you know, it's okay if you do. You don't have to feel like a wimp or feel bad or anything like that. You're you and you feel the way you feel. Clearly, you aren't alone in that, either, since I just wrote this whole piece about it. 

Besides, as long as you are getting out there and skiing or riding as much as you are able and want to, what does it matter if one is nervous at the beginning of the day? If you keep doing it, then like me, that nervousness must go away at some point each time you're out there. Keep going!!!