Senior at Fortuna High School

My father is a snowboarding fiend. In July he could always be counted on to stop me in the hallway -- right as I was heading into the kitchen to eat breakfast.

"Are you ready?!" he would ask, as he grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me rapidly back and forth. I'd yawn.

"For what?" I replied as I pushed past him.

"For snowboarding!"

I just rolled my eyes. But now it's finally my father's favorite time of the year. It's winter, January to be exact, and there's snow on Mount Shasta. At the beginning of last week, my dad scheduled a family snowboarding trip to Shasta, minus my mother who couldn't take the time off of work.

At first it was just going to be my dad and my sister, Kait, because I needed to stay at home and finish college applications that were due on the first. But at about 10 o'clock that night, I announced that I wanted to go. I had essays to write for Brown, but I wanted to snowboard -- that would be my father's personality manifesting itself in me.

Finally, we agreed that I would board for one day, and then write my essays on my laptop in the lodge the second day while everyone else skied, which was a compromise I learned to live with. That first day at Shasta was a great day; my family and our close family friends the Dales and the Collvers spent the whole day on the mountain.

My skills were a little rusty, but just being with everybody made me forget my aching legs. The opening of snowboarding season is always one of my family's favorite times out of the whole year, with my father easily taking first place in the enthusiasm category.

It's a sport that we can all enjoy together, laughing when I crash getting off the ski lifts and making faces at my mom when she grabs the camera in the middle of a run to start taking action shots.

All in all, I couldn't be more excited for the beginning of something that we all love so much, something so many of us can enjoy together.