My dad always used to tell me, ‘Watch what you’re doing,’ usually because I was wielding two by fours with abandon or some other destructive device around tight spaces. He never said this with his six inch voice so it’s a lesson I was sure never to forget.

Yesterday the evo crewmet up at The Summit to do some snowboarding and skiing. Some people switched sides and tried skiing and vice versa. I kept with snowboarding, but I wanted to try skiing. Whatever, I’ll try it some day. Once, during the 6th grade, my mom let me skip school for the only time in my life to go up skiing with my cousins. It was the first and last time I would attempt the sport of skiing or so I thought.

My dad’s advice rings true even on the mountain. While hitting the jumps in the terrain park it is important to ‘spot your landings.’ You definitely touchdown more surely by looking at where you’re going to land rather than taking off and hoping for the best. It takes concentration. However, I still can’t reach a 100% success rate getting off the chairlift.

Later that week I was driving my car in the rain, in Seattle, during rush hour(s). A car stopped suddenly in front of me, but because I was ‘paying attention’ to the road I avoided disaster. Those red hot tail lights were like a beacon from the past jolting my brain into hyper-vigilance.

The main message in all of this is that life is intentional and is not something to take passively—a good reminder for me especially. Back when I was a kid I would have appreciated it if my dad spoke to me a little more tenderly, but later in life I’m thankful for the lesson that has applied in more than one tense situation during my short stretch as an adult.