During the winter break, I took advantage of some great water — the teens lined around me in the water called it “epic” and “sick” and yelled to each other that it was “firing” and “going off.” With the water temperature at 44 degrees, I was grateful that I had my extra-thick wetsuit and hood, mittens, and booties on and that no one took a picture of me in them. I look and move like a giant seal out of water. As I paddled about and got, as the kids described it to me, “thrashed,” I realized how much learning at Crossroads resembles waiting for, paddling into, popping up on the board, and riding a wave.
Anyone who has spent time in the water knows that most of surfing is not the ride itself. It’s the waiting. Reading the horizon. Watching sets roll through. Positioning yourself again and again, sometimes with patience, sometimes with hope, sometimes with a bit of doubt. Learning looks the same. There are long stretches where students are preparing—building skills, absorbing feedback, watching others try—before the moment comes to paddle.
Then there’s the commitment. You feel a wave rise beneath you, and you paddle hard, unsure if this is the one. Sometimes it is. Sometimes the wave changes shape at the last second and kicks you off before you ever stand. In school, this is the math problem that suddenly doesn’t make sense, the essay that falls apart mid-draft, the social moment that doesn’t go as planned. You didn’t fail to try; the conditions shifted.
Other times, you get up on the board—but your footwork is off. You wobble, lose balance, and tumble into the water. That, too, is learning: the presentation where nerves take over, the test where understanding was there but execution wasn’t. You were close. Close counts, because close teaches.
And then, every so often, it happens. You catch the wave at just the right moment. You stand, find your balance, and ride it all the way to shore—exhilarated, surprised, proud. Mastery feels like that. It’s real, it’s earned, and it never comes without all the waves that came before it.
At Crossroads Academy, we try to honor every part of this process. The waiting. The paddling. The wipeouts. The near-misses. And the rides that carry students farther than they imagined.
Each experience teaches something—about persistence, timing, humility, and confidence.
The goal isn’t to stay upright all the time. The goal is to keep getting back on the board, reading the water a little better each time, and trusting that every wave—whether it knocks you down or carries you forward—has something to teach. It is “epic” and “sick” to watch the students “firing” and “going off.”
