So, I've decided that in order for you all to know how much I truly love and believe in my busiess and this mission, I would need to start at the very beginning - or at least where I was earlier in life and what I always thought I was supposed to do.
Growing up in the Midwest - here in Indianapolis, Indiana - I thought that I would be happy if I just went to college, was then miraculously just given a job right out of college (we now all know how untrue that can be) got married to the guy I was dating in college and settled down to have 3-4 kids here in Indianapolis. I always saw pictures and random things on movies that showed someone adventuring - but it was most always a man. I thought to myself, "I would love to be the warm home a man like that comes home to," but never imagined I would be the one actually out in the middle of the wilderness - without cell phone service - for weeks at a time for a job I absolutely adored.
I always flet a little "off" when just doing what all my peers were doing. Starting in high school, I can remember not loving to be at parties for very long - unless it was a gathering at my house - then, as anyone who knew me back in high school, I loved having a "party at Patty's" because it meant I was already at home and could just walk into another part of the house - that we had shut off from the rest of the party - to get some peace and quiet and good one on one connection with someone who was a best friend or just my sister or my mom or dad. I can remember that any time I attended a big house party or garage party with friends - I was ready to leave within an hour. But, like most people at the age of 15-21, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted - so I just did what my peers did.
The times I remember being the most fun in high school - were when myself, my sister and a group of 2-3 friends would drive around in our mom's Toyota Previa (the sliding door did not always work) - and steal yard signs from houses, mount people's Christmas reindeer, steal traffic cones, put people's sports signs in other yards and of course TP houses and etc. Basically, we loved being mischevious - often times, however, we did not have the luxury of having - "Gina's Van-gina," (my mom's name is Regina) - and we were doing all this mischief on foot outside - which required a lot of walking or riding bikes at night time! It was a blast! I also loved sleeping out on our big trampoline with my sister and friends, playing in the snow on snow days and i genuinely LOVED going to Girl Scout and FCA camp - I went throuh my sophomore year of high school! Then the "gotta be a cool teen" thing got me and I let go of that part of me until I was about 22 years old - and I fell in love with running - something I had never loved to do thanks to the fact that my body was not producing enough red blood cells for years because I had (and technically still have) Ulcerative colitis. Which hindered me in any type of endurance sport. My parents were awesome and brought us up playing tons of sports, going to camp and trying all sorts of things for fun. We loved the library and camping (now I know it was bcause it was cheap and free - there are 4 of us kids) and had a pretty amazing childhood. But, once I was diagnizosed with Ulcerative colitis I was taking upwards of 10-20 pills each day to help control it starting at the age of 12 years old. It made it so that I had a much harder time just being a carefree teenager becaue I always had to remember to take all my pills in the morning and evenings - I even had 2 , 'days of the week' pill boxes like an elderly person. I look back and laugh now and almost feel bad for that girl - but it was my reality and what I knew and I certainly wasn't going to let an illness stop me from doing what I loved. I didn't know it then - but I'd say my grit, resilience and gumpshion were incredible.
At 22, my whole life changed. Everything I ecer thought I was going to do and ever planned to do changed. Because I dared to dream something different. I dared to do the thing that you, "only see on TV." I took an internship in NYC and it changed my whole life. THAT is where my journey of this life really began.
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