I remember the very first time I ever tried waterskiing. We were at Bear Lake playing on my uncle’s boat. (A snazzy gold and metallic olive green beauty.) I got all kinds of instructions–keep the rope between your knees, hand signals for faster and slower, how to get up, don’t cross your skis, don’t hold your breath, the fish won’t nibble your tushie while you’re sitting in the water, etc. The one piece of vital information no one thought to give me? If your skis fall off, let go of the rope. I’m going to paint myself in a good light here and say that my family all thought I had enough common sense (I was eight) to figure this out for myself. I didn’t.

So there I was, ski-less, being dragged behind a boat, quasi-drowning. Not the makings of a great memory. After I finally let go of the rope and the boat came back around to me, my aunt informed me that there was a 3-tries-before-you’re-allowed-back-in-the-boat rule. I seriously considered swimming to shore. (For the record, I’ve never seen her enforce this rule with anyone else.) I tried two more times, and each time I got closer, but then I was adamantly finished. My aunt tried every bribe in the book to get me to try a fourth time (including a Squeeze-It drink. Remember those?) but no go. I was not skiing again–ever.

I did eventually try again, four years later. And I’ve been skiing ever since. This summer I’m hoping to get my little four-year-old up on skis. I’m open to advice but there is one rule that cannot be broken: when she says she wants to get back in the boat, she gets back in.