The pursuit of happiness

Since the Declaration of Independence we’ve each been granted certain rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness can mean so many things, each person has their own idea of happiness. For many of us happiness can be found on the mountain, in the cold chill weather with the sounds of the chairlifts overhead and the turns of a snowboard underneath your feet.

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I remember what it was like before I found snowboarding – like an empty void that I couldn’t figure out what to fill it with.  For many people religion might save them but for me, snowboarding saved me.  Like any teenager, I was awkward, depressed and in the very typical teenage angst at that point in life.  I had already begun experimenting with drugs, alcohol and was already heading down a path where bad things could have happened very easily.  I often joke now that I rebelled so much in my teen years that by the time I made it to college, I actually studied because I had already done all that.  The photo below was taken before I found snowboarding as I sat in a field completely miserable, not knowing who I was and just wanting to hide from the world.

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In a matter of months I ended up finding my true love – snowboarding and we’ve been together ever since.  For me, my pursuit of happiness involves being around snowboarding.  It’s changed my life in more ways than I could imagine but also saved me. I look at those two photos, my happiness and my unhappiness…and I wonder who else has been saved by snowboarding?