Episode 2
Ep 002. Reinvention Story Part 1 - From Texas City Girl to Becoming Adventurous & Outdoorsy
In this episode, Allison will be telling you part one of her personal adventurous reinvention story and how she went from being a city girl from Texas to becoming outdoorsy and adventurous through backpacking.
Key Points Discussed:
- FIRST Backpacking Experience: Allison's first challenging hike from Happy Isle to Little Yosemite Valley, marking the start of her outdoor journey.
- Adventurous Transformation: A "year of yes" led to solo travels, new adventures, and meeting her second husband.
- Life Path Changes: Overcame life challenges, including depression, divorce, and a move to California, sparking a shift in personal identity.
- Empowering Others: Creation of She Dreams of Alpine (her now business) and the "Backpacking Badass" program to teach and inspire women in the outdoors.
Where to learn more about Allison:
🎁 FREE GIFT: Grab the Outdoor Backpacker Starter Kit for FREE here to get started on your journey with backpacking.
🥾 BACKPACKING COURSE WAITLIST: This is our signature program where we teach you how to become a safe, confident, and self-sufficient backpacker. It's an online course, coaching program, and community to support you in your journey to becoming a confident backpacker and step into your adventurous identity.
Transcript
You're listening to the Adventurous Reinvention podcast. I'm
Speaker:Alison Boyle AKA She Dreams of Alpine and this is the
Speaker:show that's dedicated to all the adventurous spirits out there who have either
Speaker:been transformed by the outdoors or interested in what it
Speaker:looks like to step into a new adventurous and courageous kind
Speaker:of identity in their life. It doesn't matter what your background is in the
Speaker:outdoors, what age you're starting at, or where you grew up. If
Speaker:you're curious about the outdoors and using adventure as a way to
Speaker:reinvent yourself, you're in the right place. I'll be
Speaker:sharing all kinds of personal adventure stories, lessons I've
Speaker:learned from the mountains, teaching what I know about the outdoors and leadership,
Speaker:and interviewing some amazing adventurous women all along the
Speaker:way. I've been coaching women on becoming safe, confident, and
Speaker:self sufficient backpackers and leaders of their own adventurous lives
Speaker:since 2018. And I know exactly what
Speaker:big fears and self doubts can pop up along the way. I have
Speaker:so much to share with you, so let's dive in. Okay.
Speaker:Welcome, my friends, to episode 2 of
Speaker:our adventurous reinvention podcast. I'm
Speaker:so excited to share this story with you. Some of you may have heard this
Speaker:or you may have heard versions of this story, but I'm excited
Speaker:to kinda share it here on this podcast so it has a place to live
Speaker:and can be revisited. And this is essentially my
Speaker:part 1 of my adventurous reinvention, my own
Speaker:personal adventurous reinvention story. And,
Speaker:basically, there have been a few really key pivotal moments in
Speaker:my life where I can look back now and see that I
Speaker:completely reinvented myself. And so today, I wanna share with
Speaker:you part 1 of that story. And this is
Speaker:the literal story about how I went from being the girl
Speaker:from Texas without a single outdoorsy bone in her
Speaker:body to being the kind of woman who spent literally
Speaker:almost every single weekend, like, hiking, climbing,
Speaker:backpacking. I got into mountaineering, a little bit of canyoneering. I
Speaker:was just obsessed with being outside and being that
Speaker:kinda woman who did those kinds of things. So
Speaker:I reinvented myself by first becoming a
Speaker:backpacker, and now my life is completely different
Speaker:than what it was like before I kind of was introduced to the
Speaker:outdoors. So today, I wanna walk you through this
Speaker:concept of how backpacking has played a huge role in my life and
Speaker:making me the woman I am today. So I
Speaker:want you just to just allow this conversation to be
Speaker:kind of like a seed of possibility for yourself.
Speaker:Like, it's an idea. Let it be a curiosity.
Speaker:Open up to if you're brand new to the outdoors maybe you
Speaker:are just a hiker or, like, you're just starting to even get into that.
Speaker:Let this be something that opens up possibility that
Speaker:could happen for you. Right? There's all these ideas and
Speaker:possibilities floating out there, like, ways of being, these
Speaker:different career options that we have, ways that we could live our life,
Speaker:adventures that we could go on, experiences we can have,
Speaker:things that we can create and bring to life. There's so many
Speaker:possibilities. Right? And maybe you floated into my
Speaker:world here at she dreams of alpine for whatever reason,
Speaker:and maybe that reason is that I'm here for you
Speaker:and your life as a way to present a new idea
Speaker:and a new possibility or a new way of being that maybe you
Speaker:haven't considered before. So for
Speaker:me, that thing that literally drives me every
Speaker:day is sharing the message and the idea that the outdoors can
Speaker:literally change your your life. So,
Speaker:my favorite way to teach somebody a new way of
Speaker:being or more appropriately like an adventurous
Speaker:way of being is by teaching them how to be
Speaker:reinvented by becoming a confident and self sufficient
Speaker:backpacker. And I remember my dad when I first started my
Speaker:business back in 2018. I remember he asked
Speaker:me, won't I get tired of talking about backpacking?
Speaker:And I knew really confidently then when I started my
Speaker:business that that answer would be no because it's
Speaker:so much more than just backpacking.
Speaker:For me, backpacking was one of the pivotal ways that
Speaker:I personally reinvented myself way back in
Speaker:2013. It was absolutely a
Speaker:turning point in my life, and you could consider it kinda like my
Speaker:butterfly effect. Right? So if you've
Speaker:never read the book by Elizabeth Gilbert, it's
Speaker:called Big Magic. I highly recommend it if you've never listened to it
Speaker:before or read it before. She talks about creative
Speaker:living beyond fear in that book. And I even if you don't
Speaker:consider yourself a creative type, I think this book is worth
Speaker:everyone should read it. It's just a fantastic book. And I love the way
Speaker:in this book how she talks about curiosity and she talks about
Speaker:ideas. So in her book, Big Badgic, she talks
Speaker:about how ideas and for the purposes of this
Speaker:podcast, let's extend that to possibility,
Speaker:and how ideas and possibility just exist,
Speaker:and they are, and they exist in this world. All kinds
Speaker:of possibilities for our lives just exist. Right? And
Speaker:sometimes the way we're introduced to them is through an idea,
Speaker:a curiosity, listening to a podcast or somebody
Speaker:else's story. Right? And in these moments, we have a
Speaker:choice to partner with that idea or that curiosity
Speaker:or that possibility and bring it into reality into our
Speaker:own life, or we can dismiss the idea and move
Speaker:forward with what we're doing. Right? It's a partnership. But
Speaker:the idea or the possibility will move forward regardless
Speaker:to find another partner to bring it into reality if you choose to
Speaker:ignore it. So I love this concept of partnering with
Speaker:ideas, and I think about it a lot.
Speaker:And she talks about this concept in relation to relationship to
Speaker:creation and ideas and creative pursuits, but I think it's equally
Speaker:as applicable to possibilities and ways of being in our life.
Speaker:So these are all there are all these,
Speaker:like, ways that we can be and exist and
Speaker:identify in this world and this this life that we're living.
Speaker:Right? And it's I think it's really fascinating
Speaker:because there's all these different career paths and life
Speaker:paths that all of us humans can take.
Speaker:I remember when I was, like, 1st listening to
Speaker:podcasts for the first time, and I was, like, listening to Tim Ferris podcast or
Speaker:something like that. And I kept seeing these interviews, and I was,
Speaker:like, wow. These people live wildly different lives than I am, and I just
Speaker:never even considered these as options for myself.
Speaker:So when I stopped to think about it, like, people
Speaker:show up and exist and live in this world in so many wild and
Speaker:unique ways, and that's, like, very exciting. And
Speaker:what I didn't realize though until backpacking entered
Speaker:my life is that I actually had some say
Speaker:about which possibilities came true in my life, and not even that.
Speaker:I actually could create whatever I
Speaker:wanted in my life. So I think when I
Speaker:was younger, I originally thought, like, I am who I am.
Speaker:Like, I identify how I identify. I'm not outdoorsy. Like, these are
Speaker:the cards I've been dealt. Right? I can't just change who I am.
Speaker:And that's how I kinda operated my life. Like, I'm just
Speaker:a, I'm just a perfectionist, and I'm just this, and I
Speaker:could never do that, and I'm not brave enough for that, and I'm just a
Speaker:scared person, and I'm just really shy. Right? I just had these
Speaker:identities that were so solidified in me that I just thought were
Speaker:things you couldn't change. But what I began to
Speaker:realize through backpacking is that I can be different
Speaker:than who I thought I was, and I can be someone I
Speaker:never imagined was possible for me. So
Speaker:I wanna back up a little bit and tell that
Speaker:story. So So when I was younger, I was
Speaker:definitely a box checker. I was, you know, type a and a
Speaker:plus student. I was born and raised in
Speaker:Texas. I grew up there my whole childhood,
Speaker:in the Houston, Texas area, and, you know, I actually
Speaker:got married really young. I got married at age 19,
Speaker:and then I went to college because that's what you
Speaker:do. You go to college, and I got into
Speaker:a career path as an engineer to do something
Speaker:respectable, and I was just anticipating I'd be an engineer for the rest of my
Speaker:life, and that's just what I thought you were supposed to do,
Speaker:checking off all the boxes that I thought I needed to do to check
Speaker:off to live the right kind of life, right,
Speaker:as if there were a right or wrong way to live, a life
Speaker:that was completely mine. But when I was younger, I just felt like
Speaker:you're presented with your, like, sort
Speaker:of basic options of life plans, and then you just
Speaker:kind of follow it without bothering to question, like, is this what I want?
Speaker:Is this the path that I wanna go down? And even being open to the
Speaker:idea that you can change your mind, that was something that was
Speaker:also foreign to me. Like, I just thought, thought, I've made my decision, and this
Speaker:is the path that I'm on. Right? A solid career path, a
Speaker:strong retirement plan, kids, a house, a marriage,
Speaker:and old age. Right? Check, check, check. That's kind of
Speaker:where I was headed. But in college
Speaker:excuse me. In college, life kinda sorta threw
Speaker:me a curve ball. And to make
Speaker:that story a little shorter, I basically started to
Speaker:question things. I was really frustrated by who I
Speaker:was. I mean, I think college kinda brings this out of all
Speaker:of us a little bit. Like, we're questioning everything. We have a lot of
Speaker:curiosities start to bubble up. And all these things I had
Speaker:not experienced, I felt like I had missed out already
Speaker:on so much of my life even though I was so young then, and I
Speaker:was feeling unfulfilled and I was, like, sad about things,
Speaker:and that's when I started to kinda, like, look for those quick
Speaker:dopamine hits. Right? And so I started to, like, party and drink a
Speaker:lot, and, you know, that's what I was living for. I would
Speaker:go steady, and then I would go party with my friends, and it
Speaker:was, like, a temporary relief to all the questions and tension
Speaker:that I was resisting to answer about myself and who I wanted to be at
Speaker:the time. And I think when I was younger, my
Speaker:brain, when it was presented with all those questions, like, who am I? What do
Speaker:I wanna be? It was like, no, Allison. Don't mess this up. We have
Speaker:boxes to check. You can't just change your mind. You've picked your path, and
Speaker:that is that. Right? And this question of,
Speaker:did I actually want that? Was I on the path that
Speaker:I wanted? That question was messing everything up for me. It was
Speaker:messing up my marriage at the time,
Speaker:all the things. Like, my brain was a mess, messing up my plans. It was
Speaker:highly uncomfortable, and it was, like,
Speaker:reckless because I just resisted answering those questions
Speaker:honestly, and I was just kinda, like, numbing myself with
Speaker:partying and drinking and just not avoiding all my
Speaker:problems, basically. And long story short, it ended
Speaker:in divorce. So at the end of college, I got divorced from my
Speaker:first husband, and I also found myself moving
Speaker:out to California because I had taken an engineering job in
Speaker:California, and that was kinda like a little glimmer of me trying
Speaker:to, like, answer questions of who I wanted to be, and I knew
Speaker:I wasn't gonna find those answers sticking around in Texas. I knew that
Speaker:understanding what I wanted out of life meant shaking things up,
Speaker:and California seemed like the place to do that. So I was
Speaker:around age 22 or 2023.
Speaker:So I was in I found myself in California. I was newly
Speaker:divorced, which was not part of my original plan, but okay.
Speaker:I was back on track, checking the boxes, being an
Speaker:engineer. You know, I had my solid career choice working for me. I
Speaker:was working on that retirement plan. But then
Speaker:I also continued down that rabbit hole of
Speaker:denial and partying, and I was trying to make friends. You know,
Speaker:I had no friends, and I was really
Speaker:resisting the big questions. Right? It's so hard to answer the
Speaker:big questions sometimes. So I basically just
Speaker:would go to work, and then I'd try to go out drinking. And then I
Speaker:made drinking friends, so we were, like, always just doing something,
Speaker:partying, drinking, repeat every weekend. It was just that
Speaker:was my life after college. And I
Speaker:definitely went through a bit of a depression. I I
Speaker:recall this when I I remember I called my
Speaker:dad, one day after work, and
Speaker:I had been sleeping a lot, you know, in addition to when I
Speaker:wasn't, like, out with people. I had been drinking or, sleeping a lot, and I
Speaker:called him and I told him. I was like, I'm just tired all the time.
Speaker:And I was probably, like, a bit, you know, just sad
Speaker:sounding or something. I I don't remember this stuff very well,
Speaker:well, that period of my my life, but I remember he said to
Speaker:me, Allison, I think you're depressed. And I
Speaker:that, like, had never occurred to me. That had never really happened
Speaker:to me in that way before. And I was like, oh
Speaker:my goodness. Like, maybe I am.
Speaker:And that was kind of a point where I started
Speaker:to kinda open up to, like started opening up to the
Speaker:questions a little bit. And I had been a little bit
Speaker:tired of doing the thing that I was doing, drinking. You
Speaker:know? I I had these friendships, and some of them were good
Speaker:friends, and I still, like, really appreciate their friendships. But then some people, I
Speaker:was just like, I don't know why I'm hanging out with these people. All we
Speaker:do is drink and party, and
Speaker:it's just it didn't feel like this was the way my life was supposed to
Speaker:continue going. So, eventually, I
Speaker:decided at the beginning of the new year of after
Speaker:I'd been there, I think, in California for maybe a
Speaker:year or something, I decided to embark on
Speaker:what I now I now call this my year of yes, but I don't think
Speaker:I had that terminology back then. But I was
Speaker:basically I basically made a pact to myself that that
Speaker:year, I was going to get out of my comfort zone,
Speaker:do new things, shake it up. Like, I also
Speaker:had identified with being pretty shy, so alcohol felt like
Speaker:this way of me getting out of my comfort zone of being shy.
Speaker:But what I was going to try to do is not rely on
Speaker:drinking so much to not be shy and just say yes to things that were
Speaker:uncomfortable regardless if alcohol was involved or
Speaker:not. So my year of yes, I entered it,
Speaker:and what happened is
Speaker:1 so I was saying yes to all these things, going to new things, meeting
Speaker:new people. It felt like it was working. I was getting some momentum.
Speaker:And then I remember one day, very specifically,
Speaker:I was at the water cooler at my work, and
Speaker:and these coworkers of mine were talking about this hike
Speaker:called Half Dome. And I was listening to them
Speaker:talk about it, and they were all really excited. And I was like,
Speaker:oh, that sounds so cool. Like, that sounds like it'll
Speaker:be a cool trip. I've never heard of it before. And one of
Speaker:them told me, hey. We actually have an
Speaker:extra permit. You should come with us.
Speaker:And I was kind of kicking myself. I was like, oh, no. I'm in
Speaker:my year of yes. Like, I'm supposed to say yes to this.
Speaker:But in my mind, I was kind of freaking out because I
Speaker:wasn't a hiker. I wasn't a backpacker. I
Speaker:literally I was terrified. I was I was like, these people are gonna
Speaker:invite me on this thing. They just invited me on this thing. I'm gonna be
Speaker:so slow. They're gonna regret they ever invited me. They're gonna
Speaker:not wish I was there. I'm gonna ruin their trip. This trip, they're very
Speaker:excited about. But that was the little voice in the back of
Speaker:my head that was, like, scared of all the things, and I
Speaker:leaned in onto my year of yes. And I was, like, panicking on the inside,
Speaker:but I was just like, okay. I mean, I was honest with them. I was
Speaker:like, I've never backpacked before, and I don't have any gear,
Speaker:really, and I'm gonna need some help understanding, like, some
Speaker:things. And they had enough experience
Speaker:to at least guide me in the direction, the right direction at the time,
Speaker:and I said yes. So that point on, I
Speaker:remember, I think, I got a little list
Speaker:from one of my friends who was kinda leading the trip. And I went
Speaker:to REI, and I got a bunch of things. And I also cobbled
Speaker:together a bunch of things with with my clients now in our our backpacking
Speaker:badass program. We we call this getting scrappy. I got real
Speaker:scrappy. I didn't have, you know, down jackets or anything. I
Speaker:just, like, I just brought a bunch of stuff, and my
Speaker:backpack weight spoke for that. It was about
Speaker:£45 on that very first backpacking trip, maybe
Speaker:even a little bit heavier, for a I think we only spent
Speaker:2 nights at camp. So it was, like, a 2 night, 3
Speaker:day backpacking trip. So £45 £45 bag is way too
Speaker:heavy for that. But that was my first experience.
Speaker:Right? So what happened basically is I didn't know
Speaker:what I was doing at all, but I I got the things, and I showed
Speaker:up on that trip. And I had
Speaker:the most incredible it was the most
Speaker:hard thing I had ever done, and I was
Speaker:so incredibly proud of myself. It was a
Speaker:life changing experience. I I
Speaker:remember so the trail that we did was the typical one
Speaker:that you take from little, from Happy
Speaker:Isle is the trailhead up to we camped at
Speaker:Little Yosemite Valley, which is one of the campgrounds that's really
Speaker:close to the Half Dome area. So we hiked up
Speaker:from Happy Isle to Little Yosemite Valley, and then the next
Speaker:day, we did the Half Dome hike up the cables and
Speaker:then back down to camp, and then we hiked out the last day.
Speaker:But what's what's wild is that
Speaker:that hike from Happy Isle to Little Yosemite
Speaker:Valley, I don't remember the mileage and elevation gain off the top of my
Speaker:head right now. I should've looked that up before I was recording this. But what
Speaker:I remember is that the first time that I ever did that
Speaker:for this trip, this backpacking trip that I got invited on, it took
Speaker:me, like, 7 or 8 hours to hike from the
Speaker:trailhead to Little Yosemite Valley with my
Speaker:45 pound pack and having, like, never backpacked
Speaker:or hiked, hardly ever hiked in my life.
Speaker:And that is so it's what's wild about that is
Speaker:I've gone back and done this trail several times in, you
Speaker:know, future sessions,
Speaker:trips and stuff that I've done with friends, and that same
Speaker:portion takes me about 2 hours now. So it's it
Speaker:just really shows you, like, I was very beginner. I was
Speaker:slow. I fortunately got invited with a group of people who
Speaker:were very patient and very, like,
Speaker:encouraging of me to keep going because I could see that experience
Speaker:have gone a different direction. I could have been with people that were, like, you're
Speaker:taking way too long, and you should probably
Speaker:turn around, or, I don't know, guilt trip me about that or whatever. But they
Speaker:were very encouraging, and that
Speaker:trip was absolutely
Speaker:an amazing experience. And I was so excited that I had
Speaker:said yes to that. And what I realized after that
Speaker:trip was I I got back down and I was so excited,
Speaker:but I was like, oh, shoot. Like, I didn't really know what
Speaker:I was doing at all, like, safety wise. I didn't know the
Speaker:answers to, like, any of those questions. Like, what do you do when you run
Speaker:into a bear? Or, like, what if I had gotten lost from my
Speaker:group? You know? These were all the things that were kinda running through my mind
Speaker:because after that trip, I wanted to do more trips, but I was like, I
Speaker:don't know how to plan my own trip. I don't know how to, like I
Speaker:I I just, like, kinda followed people, and those people, I
Speaker:found out, you know, down the line, they didn't even really have that much backpacking
Speaker:experience either. So we were just kind of lucky a little bit playing with
Speaker:fire. We didn't have any issues on our trip, but we
Speaker:totally could have. And so that's when I I
Speaker:knew that I needed to learn more. I wanted to be self sufficient. I wanted
Speaker:to be self reliant, and be a little bit safer
Speaker:about all of the things that I wanted to do. But the biggest
Speaker:thing was that I knew that I wanted to do
Speaker:more. I knew that backpacking,
Speaker:this experience that I had had backpacking had something
Speaker:to do, like, a pivotal thing to do with getting myself out of my
Speaker:rut. And I really, really liked that version of me that was
Speaker:on that Half Dome trip that finished that hike. I
Speaker:really liked that version of me that did hard things because before
Speaker:that, I really didn't identify with somebody that could do
Speaker:scary things, that could do hard things, and I wanted to get
Speaker:to know her more. And so after that trip, I
Speaker:put I put all of my energy into becoming that woman because I
Speaker:think I was really at a point where I was like, I can no longer
Speaker:continue down this path that I'm headed. I need
Speaker:something to shake up my life. Like, I need to feel this way
Speaker:more. I wanted to feel more alive and excited about my life, and this backpacking
Speaker:trip had ignited all
Speaker:physically hard, but it just lit
Speaker:this fire in me that I was meant to do more.
Speaker:So I wanted to explore what did
Speaker:it mean to step into an identity, like, be the
Speaker:woman who was adventurous, who was outdoorsy, who
Speaker:was brave, who was confident, who was resilient, and
Speaker:who was strong. These were things that I
Speaker:had never really seen myself as being, and backpacking opened
Speaker:up that possibility for me because I literally did it. It was this physical
Speaker:representation. I was like, oh my gosh. I did that. And it
Speaker:was so hard, and I just couldn't believe it. So I realized
Speaker:at that point that I was gonna do whatever it took
Speaker:to become that person and just go all in.
Speaker:And that that is kinda when I realized I had a say in
Speaker:my future and who I was and who I could become.
Speaker:So I dove in headfirst into learning everything I could
Speaker:about being self sufficient, you know, being safe, learning how not
Speaker:to get lost. I was a lot self taught, and I had a lot of
Speaker:mentors. It was a mishmash of everything. I had a lot of drive,
Speaker:and I I did make it at that time. Like, I made it my
Speaker:mission to spend almost every single weekend
Speaker:outdoors, as much outdoor time as possible because that's where I
Speaker:felt most alive. So I was, like, a hardcore weekend warrior
Speaker:at that point. I would go to work Monday through Friday, and then
Speaker:I would drive. And California I lived in Bakersfield at the
Speaker:time, so it wasn't like I could just go from my front door
Speaker:to trails. But we were 3 hours from the
Speaker:Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains and had so much
Speaker:opportunity when living there. So it was
Speaker:a great place for me to be to kind of explore this new phase
Speaker:in my life. But I don't I definitely wanna, like, caveat
Speaker:that here because you don't have to live somewhere like that
Speaker:to to step into this new identity for yourself either.
Speaker:And this is something we talk about with our clients all the time. It's just
Speaker:you might have to do a little bit more planning and your adventures
Speaker:might look a little bit different each weekend or, you know, when you have
Speaker:time, if you're a busy mom or something like that. This is still totally something
Speaker:that is possible for you to reinvent yourself in the
Speaker:same way. It will just look a little bit different. This is just kinda like
Speaker:my story and how that manifested. So I I became
Speaker:obsessed with becoming a woman who went on adventures, who didn't miss
Speaker:out because she was too scared, who saw herself as
Speaker:brave and confident. I wanted to be the woman who planned the
Speaker:trips because what I was discovering, like, shortly after
Speaker:that Half Dome trip, I remember telling those friends that invited me.
Speaker:I was like, I wanna do more of this. We should do more. And everyone
Speaker:would say yes, and then nobody would plan anything.
Speaker:And I got really tired of waiting around on other people
Speaker:to plan epic things. It's like I could go plan myself a day hike
Speaker:somewhere, but I wanted to go backpack. I wanted
Speaker:to rock climb. I wanted to do these things that were
Speaker:hard and challenging, and I was in that era where I really just wanted to,
Speaker:like, see what I was made of and test my
Speaker:myself, and I needed to learn the skills to confidently plan
Speaker:my own trips and understand what was involved in that. So it took a lot
Speaker:of work, but I just slowly learned these skills.
Speaker:And each step forward, it for me was like it was like
Speaker:a compass. It felt like the right direction, and I just kept showing up
Speaker:for that person. And I
Speaker:loved who I was becoming, And that was a first for me in a long
Speaker:time. It felt really right. Right? And
Speaker:so for me, kinda looking back at that that
Speaker:phase in my life, that transition from kind of being lost,
Speaker:being depressed, going through a divorce
Speaker:to kind of entering this year of yes, it
Speaker:opened up so much for me and had such a ripple effect in my
Speaker:life. You know? If I had never entered that year of yes, I would
Speaker:have never said yes to backpacking Half Dome when my
Speaker:coworkers invited me at the water cooler. I probably would've counted myself
Speaker:out. Right? If I had never entered my year of yes, I wouldn't have
Speaker:gone all in on living an adventurous life.
Speaker:I never would've met my best friend, who
Speaker:lived in Bakersfield at the time through hiking, and, like, we forged a
Speaker:lifelong friendship, through hiking and backpacking in the
Speaker:outdoors. Now we don't live in the same place, but she's still consistently a best
Speaker:friend of mine. We go on adventures together still.
Speaker:And I also like, I ended up signing up for
Speaker:going on a solo travel rock climbing trip in
Speaker:Thailand for 3 weeks. I also met my now
Speaker:husband, my my second husband. We
Speaker:met at the climbing gym because we were talking about climbing in Thailand,
Speaker:and then we began dating, like, several months
Speaker:after that. So we met at the climbing gym. I, you know, went
Speaker:backpacking on the Trans Catalina trail, and that's where I came
Speaker:up with the idea to take a year off to travel. And
Speaker:that's when I decided to save up for a year off of travel, and I
Speaker:bought a van, and I decided to start my blog, she
Speaker:dreams of alpine. And that's when I decided to
Speaker:teach about backpacking because I remember that's the thing that changed my
Speaker:life. And I was like, I want to to help other women
Speaker:quickly and not so, like, having to navigate
Speaker:so many of the questions and the unknowns about what it takes to be the
Speaker:person who plans and executes their own trips and does it confidently and
Speaker:feels safe and and doesn't worry about getting lost in the outdoors.
Speaker:That's why I wanted to create that program. I'm like, this needs to exist. I
Speaker:did not have mentors like this, and there were not
Speaker:programs out there like this when I got started, and I desperately
Speaker:wanted something like that. And, you know, all these things,
Speaker:they led me to where I am today, which is an outdoor educator,
Speaker:full time running the backpacking badass program, running
Speaker:retreats. My life completely changed. Now
Speaker:that didn't happen overnight. Like, I mean, the backpacking trip in
Speaker:the Half Dome felt like that kinda looking back feels like this overnight moment,
Speaker:but that all took time. And, you know, I was
Speaker:honing this adventurous identity for well over 7 years
Speaker:before I ever started, you know, started thinking about,
Speaker:like, the blog and my business and stuff like that. But all of these
Speaker:things have led to this immense ripple effect in
Speaker:my life. And I know now I know that, like, even
Speaker:that is only the beginning. So I know that, like, 10 years
Speaker:from now, I'm gonna look back at even these moments that I'm having right now,
Speaker:and there's just gonna be this amazing, like, possibilities that I haven't even considered yet
Speaker:now that are gonna open up as a a a reaction to that very first
Speaker:decision to go on that backpacking trip. So every year, I think
Speaker:about that, like, how one decision in your
Speaker:life can change literally everything. Right?
Speaker:So for me, teaching the skill set of backpacking to others
Speaker:is is way more than just teaching the skill set of backpacking to
Speaker:others. For me, backpacking can be this
Speaker:really powerful tool for reinventing your
Speaker:life. Because I think the thing that I love about
Speaker:backpacking the most is that it helps us connect, like,
Speaker:this tangible thing, right, which is getting out there
Speaker:physically and backpacking, doing this this hard thing.
Speaker:And you learn through that skill, like, how to navigate kind
Speaker:of the 5050 experience. Like, things are
Speaker:hard and they're awesome, and you start to realize there's
Speaker:all these similarities between life and your experiences
Speaker:out on the trail and your experiences backpacking. Backpacking taught
Speaker:me so much about, like, how I can do
Speaker:so much and that I can handle things
Speaker:that are harder than I ever thought. And it showed me that I can be
Speaker:strong and that I can be resilient. Right? It showed me that I
Speaker:don't have to be fearless to do things. There are so many lessons
Speaker:that I got from backpacking that are, I think, literally the
Speaker:reason that I was able to make other steps in my life
Speaker:for changing what I did for a living and how I
Speaker:showed up and where I lived, all the things, right? I think
Speaker:backpacking, it really helps us
Speaker:question the anxieties and thoughts that
Speaker:we have about ourselves, the thoughts we have about others and what we want
Speaker:in our life. And in order to make feeling confident
Speaker:backpacking a reality, like, in order to step into
Speaker:your adventurous identity, you have to confront some
Speaker:of those things in order to take on a new identity. So I think
Speaker:backpacking is just, like, a really beautiful way to kind of
Speaker:uncover these different sides of yourself. So I love teaching it this
Speaker:way. It's like a partnering with a curiosity that
Speaker:you might already have. You're probably listening to this podcast because
Speaker:there's part of you that wants to be adventurous or is
Speaker:or identifies that way. Maybe you're trying to create some other new possibility in your
Speaker:life. That that feeling that you get from the trail, that aliveness that you
Speaker:feel from the trail, you wanna have that in your
Speaker:life as well. And I just think, like, you're in the right place. Like,
Speaker:keep leaning into that and see where these different
Speaker:ideas and curiosities are going to take you. And for
Speaker:me, especially if you're brand new to backpacking and you're thinking about it,
Speaker:it's like worst case scenario, if you lean into that
Speaker:curiosity, like, could I do this? Like, is this something that I could do?
Speaker:Worst case scenario, you go on some pretty badass hikes.
Speaker:But, like, the best case scenario, which I hope I've, you
Speaker:know, shown you here with my own personal story, is that
Speaker:it can literally change your life. So I had no
Speaker:idea, when I said yes at that water cooler that day to
Speaker:go on that backpacking trip in Half Dome, I had no idea that it
Speaker:would become such a important part of my story and
Speaker:my reinvention. And I'm so, so grateful
Speaker:for the backpacking and the outdoors. I'm really
Speaker:grateful that I chose to say yes and partner with that possibility for my
Speaker:life because it opened up a whole new way of
Speaker:being and thinking and living for me. So I share all
Speaker:of this today because I want you to consider that for yourself,
Speaker:consider that backpacking. On the outside, it might just seem like
Speaker:this weekend hobby hobby thing that you can do, right, but it could also be
Speaker:the thing that opens up your world and your possibilities and a new way of
Speaker:just existing and being in this world, and that
Speaker:could be really exciting for you. Right? It did for
Speaker:mine, and I've I for mine,
Speaker:and I've I've seen it, like, since what's really cool about
Speaker:being an outdoor educator and, like, in this space and teaching other women is that
Speaker:I get to see this happen all the time for my clients as well
Speaker:in so many various wild and beautiful
Speaker:unique ways. Like, people seeing that
Speaker:they can transform themselves, that they can be leaders,
Speaker:that they can do hard things, that they can do scary things when they
Speaker:never thought they could be that person and then what that opens up for them.
Speaker:It's it's incredible. And so
Speaker:just coming back to, like, what I said at the beginning of this talk, I'm
Speaker:just a person who is offering you an idea, a possibility, a
Speaker:way of being, and it's up to you to decide if you
Speaker:wanna explore that and partner with this idea. And if you
Speaker:don't, there's tons of other ideas and curiosities and
Speaker:possibilities out there. I hope just, like, at a minimum
Speaker:that I've opened your eyes to this concept of that
Speaker:you can create whatever you want to in your life. And if you're feeling that
Speaker:rub against
Speaker:my my reinvention story. I am going
Speaker:to drop another episode next week about the
Speaker:part 2 story. So this was basically, like, how did I go
Speaker:from, you know, being this adventurous person into creating
Speaker:like, what caused me to create the she dreams of alpine business,
Speaker:how did that unfold, and, how kind of
Speaker:backpacking still plays a role in that so much. So I'm gonna talk about
Speaker:that even more in my next episode,
Speaker:and I look forward to talking to you more there.
Speaker:Okay. Bye bye. Hey. I wanted to
Speaker:thank you real quick for tuning in to the show and listening all the way
Speaker:to the end. If you love this episode and you want deeper support in
Speaker:becoming a safe, confident, and self sufficient hiker and backpacker, then head
Speaker:over to shedreamsofalpine.com/waitless to
Speaker:learn more about our backpacking badass coaching program, where I teach you
Speaker:absolutely everything you need to know to be self reliant on the trails
Speaker:and stop waiting around on others for the adventure invite.
Speaker:So I'd love to help you more in your journey of stepping into your
Speaker:adventurous identity, and that program is the absolute
Speaker:best place for us to start working together. So again, that's she
Speaker:dreams of alpine.com/waitlist, and you can learn all
Speaker:about it there. So that's it for today, folks. I hope you get to spend
Speaker:some time outside this week, and I'll be back very soon with a brand
Speaker:new episode. Bye.
