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adventure, meaning, and wellness
Hi there.
The phrase "life is short" is not my favorite, because I believe life is as long as you make it to be. However, life is too short to live your life in a way that doesn't ignite the fire inside you. I started this blog to document my pursuit of getting as much out of life as I can, while being kind to the earth that I love to explore. Being as candid as I can - I bring to you my adventures in travel, teaching, healthy living, emotions, and frankly, whatever else I want to write about.
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Solo-Pilgrimage in Norway: Bee Stings, Solitude, and Connection
My hand swells up to twice its size, oozing clear liquid, and i've never felt better. About four days prior, I was traversing the notable...
Jul 24, 2024
Kauai, Hawaii: Can a Place Change Us?
Kauai, the oldest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, is known as the “Garden Isle.” Its lush tropical rainforests and mystical mountains...
Jun 14, 2024
A Slow Life
I returned from Hawaii a couple months ago and sat down to write about it. I didn't get very far, and left the words to marinate in an...
Jun 2, 2024
10 Superfoods That Give Me Superpowers
The word "superfood" is a bit wonky if you ask me. A superfood is defined as, "a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially...
Feb 7, 2024
Colorful World of Vibrant and Dull Extremes: Finding Balance
When I arrived in Wyoming, I fancied vibrant yellows and then deep rusty oranges - the colors of aspen leaves in the fall. For the first...
Jan 28, 2024
To Dwell or Not to Dwell: How Do We Deal with the Emotions of Nostalgia?
Nostalgia creeps in like the cold of winter. Slow at first, then one day the icy wall shows up with full force, impossible to ignore....
Jan 2, 2024
Pacific Northwest: Traveling Through Light and Shadows
A mother and daughter sit at a countertop in a bar facing out to the quiet street. They are drinking oat milk hot chocolates. It's 9pm in...
Dec 9, 2023
Death in the Mountains: A Quest of the Sublime
Another man died in the mountains. I say another because that fate is not uncommon in mountain towns. I say man because fatality among...
Nov 15, 2023
Designing Things, Places, and the World: Agnes Bourne
Agnes Bourne was three years old when she designed her very first home. I haven’t seen this design, but through Bourne’s vivid...
Mar 13, 2023
How to Become Confident: Through Experience
Many people want confidence. Many people wonder why they don’t have it. There are things that I am very confident in, such as leading...
Nov 10, 2022
Get Uncomfortable: How to Get Into Your Growth Zone and Out of Fear
There are a lot of things that are scary about life. Everyone has their own personal anxieties, and oftentimes avoidance is how many...
Oct 24, 2022
Autumn in the Mountains: The Complexities of Change
I have been seduced by the phenology of quaking aspens. In the winter, they stand softly, white bark against white snow. Their eyes,...
Oct 7, 2022
The Healing Powers of Nature: Feeling Alone
Peyton is in 8th grade. Blonde, formidable beauty in her future, remarkably rebellious, sharp as a nail, and tragically wrapped up inside...
Sep 25, 2022
Can Our Younger Selves Predict Who We Will Become?
In college one of my friend groups used to play board games nearly every night we got together. Not chess, or monopoly, but more abstract...
Aug 20, 2022
Catering for the Rich & Glamorous: An Eye Opening Night
"Do you have clothes?" Jennifer, the woman who just hired me asks. I am momentarily confused. Jennifer has on a sleek sleeveless white...
Jul 27, 2022
Yellowstone: Blood, Tears, and Unspoken Prayers
I think that the traffic is because of a bison, but as I round the corner I see a woman laying in the street with a pool of blood around...
Jul 14, 2022
Kids and Screens: A Reason to Scream
I am walking through the forest with some 6th graders when one exclaims, Wait, these spruce don't look anything like the ones on...
May 14, 2022
Be a Man: How Gender Norms Shape Today's Kids
I walk back from an evening program with a school group, and four kids are crying. That's how I know it's been a good night. I take them...
May 9, 2022
Falling Into Gutters, Devouring Fresh Fruit, and Swooning Over Sloths in Costa Rica
Approximately 5 minutes after leaving the hotel in Costa Rica, I fall into a gutter... hard. Costa Rica's streets are lined with gutters...
May 5, 2022
Self-Soothing: A Necessary Skill to Coping with Life's Challenges
Imagine something traumatic has happened to you. Maybe it actually has. We may have a support system - Parents, friends, teachers,...
Mar 20, 2022
Living and Teaching in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
A red shape flashes in the corner of my vision. I turn away from my students, and see a red fox lightly pitter pattering across fresh...
Mar 12, 2022
The Nuances of Cultural Appropriation in Spirituality: Expanding Compassion
Recently, I started reading a book about spirituality called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I first discovered this book when I saw a...
Feb 1, 2022
Harvest Kale Salad
This meal is honestly way more than just a salad. It is packed with protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and more. This is my go-to when I...
Jan 20, 2022
Developing a Morning Routine to Start Your Day Right: 4 Things I Do Everyday
There is not a one-size-fits-all in terms of waking up. It is actually quite simple: You open your eyes, and start your day. How we start...
Jan 17, 2022
Finding Nature’s Power Through Stillness
I park my car next to a small snowbank of fresh snow, and see large footprints that head into the forest that start at my car. They...
Jan 13, 2022
Hiking Safety Tips from a Wilderness EMT
Some of us are super confident venturing out into the wild on our own, and others not so much. People may be dissuaded from going hiking...
Jan 9, 2022
Why I Stopped Collecting and How You Can Stop Too
When I was in elementary school, I had a box containing around 300 gift cards. None of these gift cards ever had any money on them. I...
Jan 5, 2022
New England Suburbia vs. Western Small Town
On the drive back from the airport in Boston I stare out the window at all the trees zipping by out the window. On long car rides I used...
Dec 30, 2021
Garlic Olive & Roasted Tomato Pasta
Cook time: 30 minutes Calling all olive lovers! THIS is the recipe that will change your life. Even if you don't love olives, this dish...
Dec 27, 2021
Beating the Holiday Blues by Managing Expectations
Twinkling lights wherever you go, holiday desserts, family gathering, gift giving, time off from work - How could one not be happy around...
Dec 21, 2021
Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal
Ready in 10-15 min If you are a big fan of fall/winter deserts, you will love this recipe for morning oats. Honestly, you could have this...
Dec 20, 2021
Zesty Shells with Sautéed Veggies
Ready in 30 min Buckle up and get ready for this wildly versatile and simple dish that takes pasta to a whole different level. This meal...
Dec 13, 2021
Blasé in Beautiful Arches
I planned to visit five national parks this week, and spend every night under the stars. I start to rethink this decision on the second...
Dec 10, 2021
The Materialistic World of the Outdoor Industry
Gear. Gear. Gear! You have it, or you don't. The word itself is so subjective - It can be valued at $5 or $5,000, depending on where you...
Nov 30, 2021
Hiking My Way to Sanity in Franconia, NH
I take deep breaths, half because of physical exertion, and half because the air is dense with the musky-sweet smell of fallen leaves. So...
Oct 12, 2021
Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle Wherever You Are
It can be easy to be healthy while living in an affluent urban area where you are a stone's throw away from a juice bar and an equinox...
Sep 12, 2021
Reevaluating My Path to Happiness
Slipping out of the hotel room and into the quiet dark streets of rural Slovenia, I feel as though my heart might be set ablaze. The cool...
Jul 27, 2021
Can I have your life? The Flattering Question That Makes Me Cringe
I posted a picture to social media last week of a moose that I saw while exploring the Bighorn Mountains. Someone commented, "Can I have...
Jul 8, 2021
Is My Life Worth a Hat? Grappling with the Value of My life
Never had I been forced to consider the worth of my life before my last solo-hike. I am hiking a trail called Upper Layout, a modest hike...
Jul 2, 2021
A Park Ranger's Experience Visiting Yellowstone National Park in the Summer
There is a Mott's fruit snack wrapper floating sadly in a bubbling thermal pool. I find myself staring at it longer than the geyser...
Jun 3, 2021
Painting a Picture of Life in Lovell, Wyoming and Exploring Bighorn Canyon
My nose is bleeding constantly, and it is getting harder to suck in oxygen through the scabs constantly forming in my nostrils. Now that...
May 24, 2021
Simple Swaps for Healthy & Sustainable Living
Throwing away all your plastic Tupperware, leftover Halloween candy, plastic bags, conventional makeup, and single-use razors is not only...
Mar 17, 2021
The Fate of Relationships for Young Vagabonds
As a young adult, I am on the move quite a bit. Everywhere my feet land, I am unsure if I will make this plot of earth my home, or if I...
Feb 26, 2021
Fast Fashion: A Fast Way to Destroy Our Planet
Back in high school, I remember getting my first paycheck from my job, going to the mall with my friends, and spending it on poorly made...
Feb 11, 2021
I Love Aging
I love aging. I don't know if I will still be feeling that way when I hit 40, but right now I am in love with it. I love the way my body...
Feb 4, 2021
The Art of Being a Soft Badass
You're driving down the freeway when some ambiguous person in a purple Dodge Challenger comes out of nowhere and aggressively swerves in...
Feb 3, 2021
6 Signs of an Emotionally Abusive Relationship
There is a good chance that either you or someone you know has been in an emotionally abusive relationship. The National Domestic...
Jan 25, 2021
Why I am Vegan (essay)
It is easy to live your life following societal norms, but harder to entertain the idea that perhaps our entire ideology is skewed. I can...
Jan 20, 2021
Safe Solo Travel as a Female
Whenever I am at a family gathering and I reveal my plans for my next hike/travel, I am met with a mixture of concern, confusion, and...
Jan 19, 2021
5 Mantras that Changed My Life
Words only have power and meaning if we give them the means. Logs won't burn without a means to spark a flame, and a piano will not...
Jan 15, 2021
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