They had been dating for over two months, and she had finally decided to ask him to join her and her family for a day on the slopes. When he arrived at the mountain that morning, she felt uneasy. Her friend Jennifer, and a few other friends had visited and skied with her and the family many times over the last few years, but this was different. This was her boyfriend – her first real boyfriend – and she wasn’t sure how she felt about having him here, wasn’t sure about having him with her at the place that gave her such happiness and peace of mind, when his very presence still made her feel so self conscious and vulnerable.

She reminded herself that she was a senior in high school who would be leaving for college in just a few months, and that she had several much bigger hurdles ahead of her to cross. Then as her parents, her brother, and her grandparents all took turns greeting him and welcoming him, her unease began to subside. She helped him get his gear and they walked to the lift. They spent the day together, just the two of them, skiing, talking, laughing, discussing the colleges they would be attending in the fall. And when he got in his car that evening to go home, she felt a sense of both happiness and relief; happiness that he clearly saw something special in her, and relief that another difficult moment in her life had not only passed, but had gone even better than she had hoped.

Snow sports: The Family Tie That Binds!