Do you remember your last KTV outing? There’s always that someone who sings along your FAVORITE SONG. And, destroys it…FOREVER!

Pretty Woman, walking down the street. Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet Pretty woman.

Hey hey hey. Ha. Ha. Ha. Pretty good, huh, huh, huh?

Hey, I got a song for you. It’s called…singing lessons.

Contest Chair. Fellow Toastmasters and anyone who dares to sing outside the shower.

There’s a dare devil in all of us. It happens when a crazy idea jumps into our brains. Your logic says “It’s risky.” but your pride says “Just do it!” Sounds like a Table Topics master. But, how many times do our instincts lead us into trouble? How many times do we crash and burn, and end up feeling blue?

Back in high school, my friends planned a ski trip to Sunshine Mountain in Canada. Now, I didn’t know how to ski. But, my pride said “Just do it!”.

Now, you should know that when you ski, there are three levels: Green, blue, and black. Guess which level I did?

Green? Thanks a lot. Yah, I did green. It’s the easiest level. At the top of the green. I closed my eyes, tucked my poles, and, shhh!!!! Yeah, easy as pie!!

Problem was I wasn’t with my friends. They were zooming down the higher and steeper slopes, the blues and blacks. Oooh.

Shh!! “Hey Anson, enjoy skiing with the babies?” “Shut up, man! I’m coming up with you guys on the blue! Babies, shhh, I WAS JUST WARMING UP.”
So, we got on the chairlift. MMM... So, this is blue, huh? Let’s do this. What? Another chairlift? MMM…OK! Whoa, this is pretty high for blue! What? Another chairlift? MMM… [pant pant pant] My hands touched the clouds. The hotel was a piece of Lego. Trees like toothpicks. Skiers like little ants. And, my heart, jumped out of my chest…on the first chairlift.

You, you guys go first. I’m going to take it REAL slow.

Shh!! The snow started going sideways (wind sound). The wind started to deform my face. And, TIME started to slow down!

I zoomed past my friends! Shhh!!! “ANSON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” What are you doing up there?

I headed straight towards these bumps. I hit the first bump. BOOM! I was punched in the face by my own knees! I hit the second bump. BOOM! Whaaaa ha ha ha haaa …

CRASH!!…

My friends rushed to the rescue! Shh!!! “Anson! That was awesome, dude! Whoa!! I’ve NEVER seen so much ski equipment scattered across the mountain like that before!”

On the outside, I was okay. But on the inside, I was feeling blue. I just crashed and burned in front of my friends!

And, as I picked up my equipment and my dignity, I saw my friends. Sh! Sh! Sh! They never went over any bumps. They went around them. And then, it hit me.

When things are smooth like on the green run, I can hit them straight on. But, when things get tough like on the blue run, can’t go on instincts. You have to plan your way around the bumps. And, there are bumps in life, right?

Bumps at work when no one wants to help..
Bumps at home when you’re not being heard.
Bumps when the honeymoon is over. Wait, if my wife asks I’m just talking about Toastmasters. Toastmasters.

Sunshine Mountain taught me to embrace blue. Blue doesn’t mean being sad. It’s is about making a plan, avoiding the bumps and enjoying the ride.

So, let’s all do blue! Because it even inspired me to take singing lessons.

So, when you’re doing blue, all you have to do, is go “shu shu shu”, then you’re not so blue…shhh!!!…

Contest chair.