It’s always hard to write about yourself. In some ways it feels like you aren’t supposed to let others know the road you’ve been down that got you this particular moment in time, but I guess I’m up to the challenge.

Most of my fondest childhood memories come from being in the great outdoors. Daughter of an adventurous woman who was raised in the Alaskan Interior and a father who’s parents were a couple of Sierra Club hikers, I guess I could say that I was destined to be the wanderer I’ve become. As a child I spent my weekends in the backcountry of the state of Wyoming. Camping trips, fishing excursions with my parents and brother were common in my early years. Driving down dirt roads, month long camping trips, and my favorite place to travel to in the summer: Priest Lake Idaho to see my great aunt and uncle. My father’s occupation of choice also made the 3 states I would live in before graduating high school great for getting into the outdoors and being active: Mining. It has shaped my life in so many ways. From my first job being at a gold mine in eastern Washington State to understanding the pros and cons to the mining industry, it has led me to so many discoveries.

As an adult, I moved away from home at 18 for my freshman year of college to Tempe Arizona so I could attend Arizona State University. I was convinced that the city life was the one for me: A small town girl, just ready to feel like I was really in the big bad world. For two and a half years, it was home. I had a great group of friends and enjoyed my days filled with booze, sunshine, and endless lazy rivers. Then, it seemed, as though I had been in an endless summer, waiting for fall to come, and it wasn’t coming. I decided in the fall of my sophomore year to transfer schools. I had been on a recent trip to western Washington State, and in my time there, went to visit a friend who attended college at Western Washington University in Bellingham. I’ll never forget that day. It was blue bird; weird for an afternoon in the late October. The water was calm, the Horizon Line ship was in the harbor, and campus was absolutely glowing in fall color. It was decided that this should be my new home.

I now find myself a graduate WWU with a Bachelors Degree in Recreation and Leisure Services: Ecotourism & Travel. I have lived in 4 states since leaving home 4 years ago: Arizona, Washington, Alaska, and Wyoming. My travel plans for 2017 include going to Costa Rica, Panama, Washington, and back to Wyoming. I am now looking at options for my future travel, and hope to keep inspiring you, my readers, with my life’s adventures.

My goal is to inspire you, so that perhaps you can use my adventures to inspire your own.

 

Happy Trails,

Mackenzie

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