Joanne Lee SmithChronic pain and symptoms recovery Nurse / Coach

Bravery Isn't Absence of Fear: My Skiing Story

3 Mar 2026 · 2 min

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1:30

In this personal reflection, Joanne Smith recounts her return to skiing after a 20‑year hiatus, describing the fear she felt while navigating narrow mountain roads and the added anxiety of caring for her two teenage children on the slopes. She explains that the fear stemmed not only from the physical risks of skiing but also from her parental responsibility for her kids' safety, noting that she had postponed family ski trips for years because of perceived danger. Despite these concerns, the trip was enjoyable, injury‑free, and left the family eager to ski again. Joanne concludes that bravery does not mean the absence of fear; rather, it involves feeling fear and still moving forward, a lesson she ties to the expression "bravery is not the absence of fear."

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Learned a lot, learned a lot about fear. I realised there is no such thing as getting rid of fear. Fear is there to be felt. Fear is definitely something that I had on those mountain roads, driving up those little teeny tiny high-up mountain roads, something that I'm not really familiar with. I wasn't actually driving, it was my husband that was driving, but still. And then I realized that actually going skiing when you've got 2 teenagers that are your children, they're my babies still, added a whole new dimension of fear because I'm not only thinking about me, well, I'm not even caring about me, I'm just hoping that they're going to be safe at the same time. And I realized that there's a reason why it's taken 20 years To go skiing again. So I went skiing before I was ever, ever pregnant, and my son's 18 now, and I always said that we'd take the kids when they were younger, and we never got around to doing it. And probably because it seems so dangerous. Anyway, it was fun. No major injuries. We all had a really good time, and we all agreed that we do definitely want to go skiing again. So Don't let me be a spoiler. It just— I just kept thinking about the expression about bravery is not the absence of fear, and it's so true.