Amongst my friends I definitely think I’ve got one of the best jobs. Being a ski instructor is kind of like being paid to play. Although it is work and must be treated professionally it is also a hobby that I thoroughly enjoy. As students most of my friends worked in bars, this involved long unsociable hours in order to earn a decent wage. As an instructor I am able to choose which classes I can and cannot work and means I can still enjoy having a life!
The best part of teaching has to be the interaction with the clientele. I absolutely love working with kids, they come out with the funniest things. More often than not they have no concept of age and can add years onto your life, asking if you are 20 years older than you actually are! Some kids have immense amounts of knowledge and can tell you exactly what type of aeroplane just flew over head while others overflow with creativity and tell the most wonderful stories.
This relationship works both ways and I also share stories with the people that I instruct. I had been given a block of lessons for PDT (personal development training) for teachers where they are put into an environment that is new to them so that they can experience learning. There was only one lady in my class and she was a music teacher. She was so keen to learn but terrified of falling because her hands are her livelihood. If she were to fall and break something she would no longer be able to teach her music classes.
During our time working together we exchanged stories as a means of calming her nerves. One of which involved my sisters and I pulling our emergency Mars Bars and whistles out our bumbags after ski school when we thought our parents had abandoned us in the French Alps. As a result, we bonded over the stories and on the last lesson of the block I was handed something as a thank you for my patience and hard work. I opened my hand to find a Mars Bar sellotaped to a plastic whistle. I was amazed that she had remembered this story from our very first lesson together and was touched that she’d put the thought and effort in to giving me this.
It’s the little things like that, which make me really enjoy my job as a ski instructor and allow me to smile every day of work. There will always be the occasional day where some trouble-maker pops up, be that a class of fourteen school boys or otherwise, but they really do come once in a blue moon. Just knowing that you can make a positive impact in somebody’s life is an amazing thing to be able to do, even if it is just glorified turning left and right!