Our Story is Your Story: Kristen

What’s up, friends? Kristen, here, your friendly neighborhood Marketing Coordinator. As the facilitator and curator of this project – Our Story is Your Story – I did feel compelled to offer some of my own reflections on the outdoors. They’re brief, comparatively. And I hope will maybe compel you to reflect on your identity as an outdoorist, or not. As a new kid in town [to the outdoors], or not. Thanks, from all of us, for reading.

If you were to think about the outdoors as another person, how would you describe that relationship? Like are y'all close? Do y'all see each other often? What does it feel like when you're together?

If I were to describe my relationship to the outdoors, first, I would describe her as someone who feels a little bit hard to pin down or to describe. She’s like very popular and everyone seems to know her and you don’t understand why she hasn’t connected with you yet. And then your friend finally introduces y’all, and you realize that she is the most down to earth (whew – maybe a little too on the nose with that one) and spacious person you’ve ever met. Just an incredible capacity to hold everything that you are. But, again, that’s kind of a lot and kind of scary and you’re a bit overwhelmed by it all – by all that she has to offer. So even though you feel really drawn to her, sometimes it’s hard to make that leap into a steady relationship. The problem (or opportunity), obviously, is on your end. And not hers. She’s consistent. She’ll keep showing up. You just have to find a way to do the same. I think that’s our relationship, in a nutshell. I’m trying to find a way to keep showing up. In small ways. Then maybe bigger ways will follow.

Have you ever felt like outdoors were not for you? And, if so, how did you grapple with that narrative? 

I think that is the narrative that has followed me my entire life. And I’m still grappling with it now. I think the last two years of being in a pandemic have really solidified my deep desire to feel connected to the outdoors. I think it has always been there. This intrinsic knowledge that I am at my best when I am outside. But I think the narratives around Blackness in the outdoors have really stifled my connections or curiosity or access for most of my life thus far.

It’s interesting to me, and still makes me sad sometimes, that I grew up in California, with seemingly everyone around me finding things to do outdoors. Camping and climbing and surfing. But I literally can’t think of a single time – as a kid or through college – that anyone around me thought to extend an invitation. So the obvious story became that those spaces were not for me. The solitude that the last two years have required of me, have presented this opportunity to consider who and what and where I’m drawn. And, one of the many answers, is that I’m drawn outside. That, really, my Taurus placement is much happier when I’ve got my feet in the grass or have the sun soaking into my skin. I’m grateful that this realization compelled me to seek out these spaces upon my move to Portland. And that, serendipitously, I found Wild Diversity.

If you could imagine your relationship to the outdoors a year from now, how has it shifted or evolved?

I really want to be someone who finds daily connections with nature. Of big and small varieties. I want to be someone who goes on walks after they eat. Who just knows that that is what needs to be done. And that my body, mind, and spirit will be better for it. I want to listen to my inner voice when it’s compelling me to cross the threshold of my home.

And I’d really like to go on some multi day adventures. I want to camp and backpack and go on paddling trips. I think being on the water has been one of the most rewarding experiences of joining Wild Diversity so far. It feels so natural and serene. It feels like home, honestly. That’s a feeling and sensation and experience that I want to keep chasing. And, as a creative, I want to find ways to engage with the outdoors that feel generative. I want to draw or take photos or offer reflections or meditations for myself or others. I want to experience a deep connection with nature, and to make it last in a way that sustainable.

What has Wild Diversity offered to you that has been surprising, unique, or impactful?

One of the most impactful things that Wild Diversity has offered to me is the opportunity to shift the narrative of the outdoors. And to expand how I think about it. As the Marketing Coordinator, and the person who handles the majority of our communications, I feel like I’ve really had an opportunity to treat the mission and teachings of Wild Diversity like my own personal mantra. So that ideas like: I belong here [in the outdoors]. Or that there’s more than one way to be outdoors. Or that Wild Diversity is the future. That a world that embodies our mission is an inherently better world. Getting to engage with those beliefs, daily, has been life altering. They’ve opened up my ideas about the outdoors. And what it means to be an outdoorist. And I am delighted, really, for the opportunity to keep growing into an outdoorist identity that best fits exactly who I am, and the personal histories that I bring into these spaces.