Return of the students

Every year it happens, the moment where a past student will come up to me and say something like "Hey how are you? Remember me?" Since we typically teach younger students (ages 4-8 a lot of the time) I find I have had to restrict my initial gut reaction of "Nope" and pretend that I do. Occasionally I actually do remember the students too. Sometimes it's not the names, but the faces, the skis, and the ski styles that I can recall... occasionally it's also what we've worked on.

I had the joy of running into one of those students again. I distinctly remember the lesson with the young boy last season, having had a great time on the snow with him. He started excited to ski and left making some great wedge turns and snow plow stops. In the middle of our busy holiday weeks I heard the familiar "Remember me?" question, turned and was shocked to see this little guy again. His mom informed me that he would only go skiing if he could have a lesson with me again. So off we went to go play in the snow and have a fun one hour private lesson. Apparently I was to be skiing with him later in the day too, his parents having bought a two hour session but decided to break it up for a long lunch stop.

In the meantime I ran across his younger sister whom I also had as a student last year. She still sits back on her skis way to much, and loves making snow angels more than skiing. She was paired with one of our female instructors and was having a blast. She too remembered me.

Having a student/client base that remembers me is what convinced me to stay at the smaller family run resort this season.