"There will always be another “there” that’s better than my “here”. The only way to find what I want is to be true and honest with myself. Settle into the experience rather than create drama like I so often do." — Susan Conrad Out There podcast, "With My Toes in the Sand"
"Expectation is the cause of all disappointment." — Unknown
"Internal reflection was more important than external appearance; personal growth took precedence over material acquisition." — Dick Dorworth Climbing Fitz Roy, 1968, "Viva los Funhogs"
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Just be your natural, horrid self." — 4th Doctor Doctor Who, "The Masque of Mandragora"
"Be yourself, because everyone else is taken." — Oscar Wilde
"It was as though my interpretation of reality wasn’t valid unless someone else confirmed it." — Jan Redford End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood
"Anger, resentment, envy, and self-pity are wasteful reactions. They greatly drain one’s time. They sap energy better devoted to productive endeavors." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"It’s not a competition. If you must compete, do so only with the person you were yesterday." — Peggy Dean Peggy Dean's Guide to Nature Drawing and Watercolor
"Comparison is the biggest thief of joy." — Unknown
"You are not an idiot. It’s okay if you don’t know everything. Don’t pretend. Ask all the questions you want." — Jedidiah Jenkins To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret
"Popular kids never grow up to be interesting and…interesting kids are never popular." — Lena Dunham Not That Kind of Girl
"Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it." — Vincent Van Gogh
"I spend a lot of my time moving at someone else’s pace, trying to accommodate, appease, and appeal. My personality is one that constantly needs to help, be supportive, be a quality team player, and to contribute as much as I can. It’s mostly satisfying, but if I get too absorbed in moving in others’ flow, I lose my own." — Ellysa Evans She Explores, "A Solo Camp for the Books"
"I envision the future version of myself that has transcended a difficult moment, that has figured out a tricky situation, that has the answer to a burning question. I imagine her out there waiting for me, and it’s a sort of comfort. Future me has gotten through this. ...Sometimes I’d arrive at that place up in the distance and realize I was the future me I had been looking at." — Carolyn Highland Out Here: Wisdom from the Wilderness
"Worrying that you are crap is a waste of time. Worrying that you can’t do it is a waste of time. Worrying that you failed is a waste of time. No one cares. Just get on with it." — Peter Capaldi
"However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far removed from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown." — JK Rowling Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination
"Public lands instruct in the value of respecting differences. We may all be endowed with a love of nature, but that passion takes many forms. Public lands must accommodate multiple uses because there are multiple publics whose wishes point in all directions. … Such differences don’t have to fester into divisions. The duck hunter and the birdwatcher may have their own ideas about the highest value of a wetland. Yet both know that without public protection, there might not be a wetland at all…. America’s public lands teach the etiquette of sharing. They instruct is in the manners of coexistence, cooperation, and consideration toward each other. … Such humility can remind us that even though we may find the culture and politics of others to be incomprehensible, their desire to find happiness in the natural world is much the same as our own." — Jason Mark Sierra Magazine, July/August 2020 Issue, "In Public Lands is the Preservation of the Republic"
"In this new social media era, the portrayal of women in the backcountry has taken a turn for the fabricated. Instagram users have likely seen the emerging trend of imagery of perfectly coifed women in fashion outdoor wear staring out at beautiful landscapes. These hyper-curated photos saturate Instagram feeds, and this phenomenon is beginning to have a hand in shaping the portrayal of women in outdoor adventure. The rise of this trend has shifted the focus to the aesthetics of the shot rather than the endeavor itself, let alone the skills required for it. One of the big questions centers on the message this category of outdoor portrayals sends to women about what the focus of backcountry adventures 'should' be. In this age of the social media-ization of adventure lifestyles, the line is more blurred than ever about what’s realistic and what’s not." — Guest Editor Misadventures Magazine, "The Reality of Women's Sports According to Instagram"
"When we admit that we don’t know, we give ourselves permission to be vulnerable. More importantly, we recognize a starting point from which to gather information." — Dave Richards Backcountry Magazine, "A Certain Uncertainty"
