Taking the Scenic Route

I have always been bound for adventure. I want every moment of my life to be filled with excitement, rather than experiencing a lull or any monotony. This might explain why I have slept through an entire night fewer than a dozen times – even hours of sleep tend to bore me. Yes, medically that’s called insomnia, but my brain won’t allow it. In high school, I would sneak out and drive to visit my horse grazing in a distant pasture, unseen by anyone. I wanted every day of my life to carry some unique story. This drive to be different and to experience every potential moment of adventure lingered into college.

I graduated from high school in 2005 and earned my degree by 2012. Explaining it to others, I called it taking the scenic route. It was tough seeing my friends leave school before me, and from time to time, I did wonder if I was making a mistake by dragging out my education. Still, the time off I took from classes introduced me to the California coast, allowed my first glimpses of Oregon, and, being from Ohio, I realized that a state can have craggy coastlines, towering waterfalls, and granite mountain peaks all within miles of each other. At one point, I even considered getting off a Greyhound bus to make a living as a whitewater rafting instructor in Riggins, Idaho. In the end, taking that time off was worth it. (spoiler – I didn’t disembark in Riggins and sometimes still wonder where that path would have led me if I had.)

As I settled into my media career, no two days were the same, and that thrilled me. Meeting new people daily, telling brand-new stories, and reaching a vast audience through my on-air creations. I felt compelled to guide and inspire as many people as possible. I didn’t need to come up with my own tales of excitement; I got to share others, and that made me feel alive.

For years, I got to tell everyone else's stories. And I loved it. But somewhere along the way, I realized I had been quietly collecting my own. In mountain passes, on remote trails, in the faces of my dogs when they hit cold water for the first time.

This is where I start sharing them.