The best part about my first two weeks back in Denali was the jaw-dropping place where I was lucky enough to stay. My friend Katie's summer sublet is a two-story log cabin nestled in the spruce trees on the edge of a bluff, where the land drops down to the Nenana River valley lined by … Continue reading Life in a Dry Cabin
I woke with a start. I'd been dozing on and off for the past couple of hours, but this time was different. My heart was hammering in my chest, as if my body could sense where I was in the world, my internal alarm clock ringing and bouncing off of the shelf. I quickly sat … Continue reading Returning to Alaska
How do we start to unpack a lifetime of widely held beliefs and values that we now suddenly want to stop holding us back? How do we begin to view weight gain as morally neutral? Because this is what diet culture is. A $72 billion industry that makes us believe being thin is objectively healthier, more beautiful, and more desirable.
Bozeman will likely be the only dog I ever have that I truly believe was sent to me. Sent to change my life, my family’s, and eventually John’s life, too. I know I'll find love in a dog again, someday. We all have more love to give. But some say that every once in a … Continue reading The Life of a Dog: 10 Years of Bozeman
For me, 2021 was the year of the bird. I discovered a new passion and hobby that has carried me away. In the spring, I went birding three to five times a week, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone, before class and after work, in my neighborhood and at parks around the city and state. The … Continue reading My Year in Birds: 2021
https://youtu.be/6CZ-952be94 This was my first year trying to capture a second of every day, and boy am I glad that I did. I'm missing some days, and others I filled with photos. It certainly isn't perfect, it's almost messy. But that's life for you, isn't it? Messy and beautiful all at once. Welcome to my … Continue reading 1 Second Everyday: 2021
It's the shortest day of the year, and I've been reflecting on how I want to welcome the light back into my life. It's something Alaskans do every year, and in many ways the winter solstice is more significant and symbolic to them than the new year because of the drastic change in light and … Continue reading Reflecting on Winter Solstice: When You Don’t Reach Your Goals
The first time I was in a canoe in the Boundary Waters wilderness was in 2000. I was 5 years old. My younger brother, Justin, only 3 years old, and I sat in the middle of the canoe while our parents paddled us to camp. We felt like marshmallows in our life jackets with baseball … Continue reading Looking Back and Paddling Forward: Rediscovering My Love for the Boundary Waters
Our monthly camping challenge continues! In February, we spent another long weekend in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This time, we weren't alone. Our friends Isabelle and Charlie from Madison came along for their first winter camping trip, the team building and bonding experience of a lifetime. This trip, temperatures were forecasted to be … Continue reading What to Bring Winter Camping
By the time I graduate come August, my entire 15-month graduate program will have been eclipsed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Do I mourn for the experience that I dreamt of for two years leading up to the start of my program? Of course I do. Do I regret starting my program in June 2020, despite knowing that most of it would be virtual? Not for a second.
The Curiosity Chronicles 