I made it to 25! I can’t believe I’m here, really. Feels like not too long ago I was 19 and moving to Portland with not much more than a snowboard bag and a dorm-room number. That seems like the marking point for me where I started really growing up; prior to then I’d always been pretty close (if not at) home, and even though I wouldn’t always stay there, I knew I could go back there very easily. Moving to Oregon suddenly put 3,000 miles between myself and anything I had known up until then. It was scary, and I honestly kind of hated portland for the first 4-5 months of living there. However, once I joined the PSU Snowboard Club my life was changed. Being a part of this group and finding people (like Chris and Eddy Barnhart) who were immediately so friendly and inclusive and FUN made me realize this was a place I wanted to be and that snowboarding was something I needed to keep doing. So that was it. I continued my push to finish my Environmental Studies degree, all while working paid (and unpaid) jobs and internships that allowed me to get that much closer to this fantastic new family of riders I’d discovered. I didn’t consciously realize that I was slowly shaping my whole life around this ‘sport’ (activity? passion? fun thing to do with friends?) but it happened all the same. Sometimes I get nervous that I should be out working a 9-5 job that pays more than $10k/year (actually I made less than that this year, according to my tax returns and W-2’s) but then I think about what that would really entail and I immediately feel better about where I’m at.
Last year I celebrated my birthday in the snowy mountains of Alaska, and this year I was in the rather warm Salt Lake City with a few more friends and a lot less snow. On my actual birthday I was taken through my first runs of (baby) chutes at Brighton,

followed by a gorgeous hike in to Diamond Fork Hot Springs,

and finishing with a less-than-pleasant four-police-car-pullover and drug-dog search of Tyler’s van.

Apparently there was a color festival happening the same weekend as my birthday and cops were staking out the hotsprings in hopes of catching out-of-town drugged-up hippies coming out from a relaxing soak. They didn’t find anything (of course), kept us there for about 2 hours, made me dump the rest of my closed bottle of sake (that was in my backpack) out into the dirt and charged us with open containers because we had chosen to carry out our empties instead of leave them in the hot springs for future visitors.
Oh yeah, and one of the cops wished me a happy birthday. Gee, thanks.
My second birthday celebration involved fewer police but was just as fun. My friend Laura R. works at a high-end restaurant in Park City and took myself and a few others out for one of the BEST meals of our lives. Although the plans were a little confusing to everyone (probably my fault for changing from telling everyone it was going to be a nail party to dinner party) we all had an amazing time.

I will remember that meal for the rest of my life, it was that good (seriously). There were dishes such as winter fruit salad, champagne covered lemon sorbet, filet mignon and finally a richly liquored-up desert coffee that tied the whole thing together perfectly.

Those chefs know how to make people happy.

I think turning 24 scared me more than 25; when this birthday rolled around it felt like most of the other ones I’ve had throughout my life; another year older without any kind of life crisis. Maybe that means my life is more together than it was last year? Though I find that a little hard to believe. Perhaps it’s a sign of maturity. Either way, I don’t really care; I’m just grateful to have amazing friends, family and some good stories to share. I’m gunning for another adventurous 25 years to come (and, you know, maybe a few more ;)).
