A home for my words.

I’ll be honest. I decided to move back to the US in 2018 mainly out of external pressure. Working in Ecuador and Spain showed me that travel is what I wanted for my life, but I let other factors influence my decisions. What I’ll say about this for anyone in a similar situation is to remember that this is your life to live. It is “your hour upon the stage.” Do with it what you desire.

PSA outta the way! Colorado was a darn good place to call home.

Hiking

I went from the Brooklynite who went on her first ever hike in Pokhara, Nepal as a study abroad student to a young woman who went on hikes frequently.

Colorado is home to over 50 “14ers,” mountains with peaks over 14,000 feet. It’s a common pass time for locals, although I often spent my weekends hiking around the beautiful Flatirons, which you’ll see a photo of later on in this post.

Story time: I once went on a hike in Golden, CO that had treacherously icy conditions. There was an old car just plopped in the middle of the mountain. Apparently the car was involved in an accident and fell down the mountain from a road up above, landing just off of the narrow trail. Since it would require too much to remove the vehicle, the decision was made to just leave it there. I also saw a more common Coloradan sight that day: a man wearing shorts despite the day’s frigid weather! I couldn’t believe he was so nimble running up the mountain while I was struggling to calculate each of my steps. When we saw him running back down an hour or so later he warned that the conditions up above were becoming too intense and he was going to turn back. Given his obvious skill level, we believed his hesitancy and also turned around.

Rock Climbing

Below is a picture of my first ever climbing lesson. I’d just moved to Boulder the day before. None of my furniture had arrived yet, so I had just a sleeping bag for a bed. But if there’s anything I’m good for, it’s hitting the ground running once I land in a new place!

I learned to climb. I was never all that good nor was I ever as passionate as my fellow Coloradans, but I still enjoyed just getting to be outdoors and be active.

Other Adventures

I tried and wasn’t that great at slacklining either, lol. But at least I finally got to give it a go. I used to see students in college slacklining on campus and never mustered up the courage to ask someone to teach me how.

Then there’s one of my greatest loves: biking. On warm sunny days, I loved to hop on my secondhand Trek mountain bike and hit the trails. Just my ride, some soca music, and sunshine were all I needed.

Below is a picture from when a friend and I biked up a canyon for an outdoor film event. We failed to remember how dark it would be by the time the event ended. All I had was my tiny cellphone light, but thankfully the moon was shining strong. I was also grateful that my body had muscle memory on the trail. There were some quick turns and a rushing body of water to the right of where you see me pictured. My bike started to skid out at one point and later, my friend remarked that he couldn’t believe I’d been able to control the bike back to an upright position. Something about knowing that I risked falling into the water kicked my mind into fight mode rather than panicking; thank goodness.

Some friends came into town and I got to check off a bucket list Colorado activity: Yoga on the Rocks! Red Rocks is a famous concert venue, but it also hosts events like this one:

Pearl St. is always a hotspot in Boulder, CO. Following covid restrictions, many places across the US took a nod from our European counterparts and shut down car access so that people could safely and freely dine outdoors. This was the beautiful result:

Nature

If nature is medicine, Colorado is a pharmacy *^.^*

Snowboarding

These are some images of me on a bunny slope. I’d dreamt of learning to snowboard ever since I played SSX3 as a kid! Since I’d learned to longboard after graduating college, I think I took to it decently well, despite my initial fears. By the end of the season, I even went down a black diamond trail a few times! While I generally despise cold weather, I will absolutely make an exception to my aversion if it means I get to snowboard! There’s nothing like ripping through fresh powder; it is absolutely liberating.

Thank you, Colorado!