I am a snowboarder. My name is Maya, and for all my life I have dreamed of this day, and it has finally arrived. I have been snowboarding since I was three years old and ever since I could get down a hill, I have been preparing for this moment, preparing for the big mountains, the highest peaks, preparing for the powder. “You’re only fourteen Hon, I want you to be careful.” That would be my mom, she’s not really the overprotective type, and to be honest she most likely isn’t even worrying at all about me, she’s just glad that I finally got what I wanted.

“Don’t worry Mom, I am going to be fine, plus, I’ll be with Dad and Jesse.” Dad is my savior, he always seems to be the one who knows me the best out of all of my family. Jesse, my older brother, is the reason I have wanted to go to Colorado since I was four. He taught me how to snowboard and that is why I give him credit for everything I do, because snowboarding really changed my life.
Jesse is saying, “Well are you coming or not May? We’re going to miss our flight.” I hug Mom and hop in the car,
“Yes,” I am finally on the way to my dream!

The airport is crowded and I am starved. We missed our flight, but “no worries,” is what I’ve been told; I guess there is another fligetto Colorado in, like three hours. We are still on hour number one and I am daydreaming about the mountains, I just can’t wait! I am going over how this happened to me… I had been begging my parents for years to take me to the Colorado Mountains and they were all for it except for the fact that it cost so much money. They decided that if I was planning on going on a trip that costs that much money then I would have to help pay for some of it. So I got a part-time job at the co-op and worked there for a little more than half a year. My boss was really demanding so I was really glad to leave when I had raised enough money to buy myself a plane ticket, and part of the hotel room that we were going to be staying at. We are going to be heli boarding, because all of us board, I am so excited!!!
“What are you thinking?” Dad asks me.
“Dad, what do you think that I am thinking? I am thinking about the powder of course!”
“Right… I am looking forward to that too! Hey are you guys hungry, because I am,” Dad wondered aloud.
“Yeah!” said Jesse “I’ll have a burger and a Coke.”
Dad asks me, “What do you want to eat May?”
“Um… Can I have some pepperoni pizza and a chocolate milkshake please?” I asked him.
“Sure! I’ll be back in bit.” Another hour went by, and now that I was satisfied because I wasn’t hungry anymore, all there was left to do was to wait for 4:00 when the plane will be coming. I didn’t bring anything to do because I thougetthat we were only going to have to wait a couple minutes for the plane that we missed, so I am really bored, but hey, at least I am finally on the way to the place that I have been dreaming about for as long as I can remember!

We are finally on the plane, and now we are actually halfway to my dream-state, Colorado! Everything is going well, except for the fact that the man in front of me who has no hair, is leaning back so his head is rigetin my face, and the little kid behind me is being really obnoxious and kicking the back of my seat constantly. The aircraft smells like plastic and old pretzels. But on top of all that, I am uber tired, but I wonder if there is anyone on this planet who could possibly fall asleep with this disgusting sigetin their face and this horrible little screaming thing kicking their chair like there is no tomorrow. I never could. The fligetattendant looks like she is in her twenties, and seems like she had no choice but to take this job, because she is obviously having an awful time serving all of these strangers. I ask her for some chips and water, I am really tempted to “accidently” splash this guy with the water, who by the way is now snoring, but that would be something that my mom would say was “immature.” I guess I ended up falling asleep anyway, because I wake to the passengers opening the overhead compartments. It took awhile for me to register where I was but when I remember that I am in Colorado, I sit up fast, to fast because I get a head rush, but I am too excited to care, I have finally reached my dream-state.

I am in my bed in our lodge-themed hotel room, I am trying hard to fall asleep so that the morning will come faster and I can go boarding sooner! Tomorrow is our first day for heli boarding and I am so hyped up that I cannot get any sleep at all. We are going to have a chaperone the first day, and we are going to a mountain with supposedly nobody there and lots of fresh powder, like one of those mountains in the skiing and boarding videos that are really high and creepy looking! Oh my God! I am in Colorado and tomorrow I am going heli boarding with my dad and my brother! I have been dreaming of this day since my brother taugetme to snowboard, and I am about to live it!

I am running out of time. There is a something chasing me and I am trying to scream but no sound is coming.
“May” who is that? Where is that voice coming from? Where am I? “Maya, wake up, we have to meet the chaperone in an hour.” What? “Maya, it’s me, your dad. Time to get up if you want to go heli boarding today.” Oh. Wait. I am dreaming, I am really in Colorado and today I am going to live my dream!
“Dad? What time is it?” I ask Dad sleepily.
“8:30. Now you’d better get up soon if you want to take your time getting ready, okay?” Dad tells me.
“’Kay.” I reply. I get up slowly, and to boost my energy I daydream about where I am going to be in just an hour! I eat a breakfast of sugar-covered donuts and orange juice and get into my boarding gear. I am ready to go at 9:00 and we leave rigetaway because the drive is twenty minutes. I am literally driving to my dream.

Our chaperone’s name is Ronnie, and I think that she will be lots of fun. She seems experienced too. She is really friendly and she told us how this was her dream job, just like this was my dream vacation!
“Alright, let’s get on the helicopter and go!” Ronnie announced after she told us everything we needed to know about heli boarding.
“We are finally going!” I yell a bit too loud, but everyone laughs because they all know that I have been looking forward to this moment since I was four, my second year snowboarding, after I watched one of the movies with these real-looking mountains that are untouched.
We walk to the hangar where the helicopters are kept when they are not being used. There was a small helicopter waiting for us there, “Are we all going to fit in there?” I asked no one in particular. Ronnie was the one who answered,
“Yeah, I know that it looks small, but it holds four passengers fine.” We all loaded our boards onto a rack on the side of the helicopter and hopped in. I am honestly about to live my dream, in a couple more minutes I will be doing what I have thougetwas just a hope for most of my life, in a couple minutes! I am so happy, I am living in this moment as best I can before it is over, and it feels great!

The views from the helicopter are amazing, and for as far as I can see all there are snow-covered mountains, glistening and stellar. There is a small breeze and the air smells of pine trees and fresh, clean snow. The sun is out and there are no clouds anywhere, I don’t think that you can get any better than this. “It is beautiful out there!” I say.
“Yeah,” Ronnie replies, “I can’t recall any other day, in the three years that I have been a chaperone, that is as perfect as it is today.
“I think they knew you were coming, May, these mountains knew.” Dad told me.
“You know, I don’t think that’s it,” I announce, “I think that today would have been perfect whether we were here to see it or not, I think that there are perfect days like these a lot, but there is not always someone there to see it, so to us they don’t exist.” Jesse states,
“I agree with Maya, just because we don’t see these types of days all the time, doesn’t mean that they aren’t here when we aren’t, right?”
“I guess I can see your side of it,” Dad says. Ronnie affirms,
“You’re rigetMaya. Oh and we should get ready because I think we are going to land soon. I never have landed in the same spot before, so I am always boarding a new area every time I come out, so technically I am as new to this mountain as you guys are!” As we start to get closer to the mountain, the snow that is under the helicopter is blown out from under it in big whooshing swirls, until we have hit the ground. The pilot doesn’t bother stopping the propellers since he is just going to be leaving once we get out. We unload ourselves and our equipment and watch as the helicopter flies back to the hangar.

I turn around toward the beautiful snow-covered mountain rang. Oh how I have been dying to see this! We walk out of the shade of the mountain and into the sunlight. The snow is blindingly white, and the sky is a clear blue, this could be heaven and I wouldn’t be any more dazed than I am now, nor surprised at the shape that heaven took.
Ronnie leads us over to the edge, and she, Dad, and Jesse start to get there boards on. I am still looking out over the valley when Jesse sees me and says, “It is unreal, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I replied, still trying to take in this perfect view while it is there. I finally sit down, almost satisfied with the picture that I have taken in my mind.
“Be careful not to hit any trees, and make sure I am always in your range of sight, but otherwise, have the time of your life!” Ronnie informs us. This is it! I am about to live my dream for real! Dad goes first; he slides slowly off the edge at first but then gathers lots of speed and starts to ride the perfect powder down the endless fairy-tale hill of magic. Ronnie goes after him so that she can be in front of all of us, being the chaperone she must. Jesse looks at me, “You go,” I say, “I’ll be rigetbehind.” He nods and rides off the ledge and down into the valley. The tracks of the three in front of me are clearly visible.
I decided that I wanted to ride on fresh powder as if it were just me and my board here on this mountain. I ride off the ridge and glide over the powder so easily, this is the best feeling. Wind in my face, I ride off to the side a little away from the others’ tracks so that I get my own fresh powder this run! I am so caugetup in the magical feeling of riding high-speed in powder on a the most perfect of all perfect days, that I don’t notice that I have lost sigetof my family and their tracks until I find myself wondering which way to go next.

“Uh oh,” I say aloud to myself. I have no idea where I am or where anyone else is, I went off too far from their tracks, and I stopped too many times to look at the view that they got too far ahead of me and. I don’t have any way to communicate with them so I guess my best bet is to keep going down. I veer off in the direction that I had been drifting opposite of and keep going down.

Finally I see the track of one person’s snowboard. I don’t know whose it is nor do I care, I just want to find them before I get lost for good in these mountains. Even though it would be fun to live here, I have no one and no idea what to do if I get lost. I start boarding again, I am still having the time of my life, I am not going to let this ruin my day. Because I have found tracks, I will find them soon, I shouldn’t worry.
Floating down the mountain is such a great feeling. The wind feels so good and I am just gliding over the waves of snow, but I always make sure to have the track in my sight. I keep riding down the mountain, another twenty minutes of this pleasurable dream-like ride has gone by and I still haven’t found anyone, but the track is still going down next to me. I start to worry that they may have gotten another helicopter to come look for me. “One of them had to have waited for me in case I come in the direction that they ended.” I assured myself.

Eventually I decided that it would be best if I tried harder to find them. “HELLO!” I yelled into the valley. “DAD! JESSE! RONNIE!” I kept calling their names as I sped down the mountain, now boarding as fast as I could without wiping out. I followed the track down into the valley, and when I finally reached the bottom, I saw nobody.

At first, I thougetthat I had gone off the track that I was following and I started to panic but then when I looked around and took in the scene, I saw footsteps leading from the spot where the track ended. I took off my snowboard and started following the footsteps. It was actually a long way. I started to lose hope, but then, just as I was about to give up, I came around a big blue snow-covered tree. I saw Jesse, Dad, and Ronnie talking together and looking worried. “Jesse!” I yelled excitedly, “Jesse, Dad!” I ran to them and gave my dad a big hug. “I honestly thougetthat I was lost, but I followed somebody’s trail and then their footsteps, and now I’m here!
“We thougetthat we were going to have to get a helicopter to go look for you, but here you are!” Dad says. “I was really worried that you were hurt you know.”
“Oh, Maya can take care of herself.” Jesse tells us all.
“Well it was lots of fun before I got lost!” I say.
“Was it everything that you had hoped for?” Ronnie asks me.
“Yes!” I reply. “More than I had ever dreamed of!”
“Well,” My dad informs us, “we need take a picture for Mom before we all leave.”
“Kay!” we all say. But inside my head I am thinking, ‘believe me Dad, no matter how many pictures you take, they will be no comparison to what we actually lived today… and that is the best part of living your dream!’