I googled what the opposite of "crisis" is, and clarity was the first word that popped up, I felt that fit. I turned 25 on March 25th (golden bday!) and that had me thinking about where I'm at in life. In the smack center of my 20's, living in the woods, surrounded by incredible people, and thick in a highly technical and soulful career through which I find great purpose. After 20 years of temper tantrums, and half a decade of reckless life decisions, I took a step back and celebrated a moment of arrival. We never truly arrive in life, but at 25 I woke up from my endless search, for just a moment, to realize that everything is alright. I'm not here to toot my horn, but what else is the internet for, why else would I have a personal blog, if not to share with the world exactly how I feel. So it's just that. At 25 I feel happy, healthy, purposeful, supported, driven, intentional, fit, and grateful. When the hard times roll through I guess I'll just scroll back and read this post to remind myself that life ebbs and flows. Anyway, a casual reporting on some of my recent flows: Official start to the NCOBS season! Morning meeting on the summit of Table Rock. This flag is called the Blue Peter. It was traditionally raised when a ship was leaving the harbor, when a ship was going outward bound. It is the Outward Bound flag because it represents a departure from our comfort zone, a willingness to do hard things. Deep, right? I'll be pouring glasses of Kool-Aid in my cabin for the rest of the season. Hiking out to the site for one of the days of rocks training. We did 4 days of return staff training for instructing, then 3 days of rocks training for climbing. After rocks was a 2 day base camp training for all staff. I love trainings at NCOBS, I feel quite lucky to have such high quality training! I was very excited to take on a trainer role in both the rocks training and the base camp training. I am watching my leadership role at the school actively transform with every passing month. This season has brought me a number of opportunities to train newer staff, and I find myself very much enjoying that job. I imagine that I'll be a trainer here for seasons to come. Max! We took a trip off base (my first all month) to the New River Gorge, WV to climb. Without a 3rd person in our climbing rotation to slow us down, we hit it quite hard. 3 days was enough to gas us. And I only sent 2 climbs the entire time. Hah! A good ole' beat down. I love how humbling climbing can be sometimes. Despite personally not sending much, I grew immensely as a climber on this trip. I fell more on trad gear in one day than I had in my entire life. That's huge progress. I also did send a trad 5.10 climb, which is a goal of mine this season. Aiming for 10 5.10 trad climbs. I have 2 now. Also it was an absolute pleasure to have some quality time with my great friend, Max. Trips like this are what we live for! I can't wait to go back to The New. I also instructed a 4 day course since my last post. It felt great to shake the rust off and get back into the field, working with students. This course was an absolute joy. All girls, freshmen in high school. It was super short, and I was wondering if it would feel impactful or if we could get to that magic in such a short time. Words are surely an awkward fit, but I can happily report that it was entirely magic, and I think that all students and instructors in my crew grew as humans from that 4 day experience. *trying not to get sappy about my job* My spirit in this work is refreshed, and I am very excited for the rest of the season, especially my two long courses (july & sept). It's just as easy for one short course to drain the soul, and make one want to be done with this work. But not this course. I've got another shortie, a 5 day, coming up in 2 days here. Another all girls crew. Stoke is high!
That's all for this update. Wondering when the stability bug will bite, or the aging will get to my knees. Hasn't happened yet, so onward I charge into the woods, up the rocks, deeper into conversation. Things are good. |
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