Reclaim your narrative

I want to hear more stories about badass women in the outdoors that aren’t centered around men.

How often do we hear stories start with “my boyfriend got me into climbing,” “my dad got me into skiing,” “My ex-boyfriend hurt me so I...”?

Starting stories this way end up centering and crediting men for our passion, and we don’t give ourselves enough credit for the massive spark for the outdoors that a lot of us already had within us. Yes, maybe men in our lives helped catalyze the reaction, but WE showed up for it and it was still OUR spark that started our fire.

I used to center my experiences around men too, until I noticed early on how toxic that co-dependent narrative was for me. I learned to reclaim my narrative.

So how does one do that?

You learn to start your stories with “I.” For example — “I got into climbing when I started going with my boyfriend” or “I fell in love with skiing when I started joining my dad” or “I turned to nature for some healing after I was hurt.”

It seems minor, but this small shift in perspective gives us more credit for our own passions and pursuits. When I started doing this, I realized that my passion for the outdoors is independent of the men in my life that have crossed paths with it. I eventually took a lot of men out of my narrative because they really weren’t essential to how my love for nature unfolded. I would have ended up in the mountains anyway.

It was liberating to acknowledge that this massive fire for the mountains is my own and has ALWAYS been within me.

Women CAN have an innate and intense passion for nature, adventure, and exploration too— and it CAN be independent of a man’s. Screw patriarchy and heteronormativity that condition us to believe otherwise.

We don’t need people to be the voice of the voiceless. Sometimes we just need them to stop, listen, and pass the mic because these stories should come from us.