David Chats with Jill about Her Love for Nature, Part 1

David:This is David. I'm speaking to an outdoor girl living in an indoor world. Jill, tell me about your love of the outdoors. How did it begin, and how did it begin? Jill: Well, I really just discovered I had a love for the outdoors about a year ago. I have a good friend who loves the outdoors, and my boyfriend also loves the outdoors, and so I just sort of started trying various activities with them, and just realized that I loved it too! So I'm fortunate enough to live somewhere where everything is just in my backyard, basically. We have the mountains, and we have ski hills, and trails to run in, and mountains to hike, and trails to ride your bikes in, and you know, the ocean to walk along or to run along, the ocean to sail on. You can just do any number of activities. So that's what I-that's where I spend the majority of my time outside of work, is in the outdoors. Hiking-usually hiking, running, or walking. However, in the winter it's a little more difficult with all the rain, and I don't get out as much, but I still try to get out and breathe some fresh air every day. David:Does it ever get exhausting, all those activities? Is there one activity in particular that you began with? Skiing, for instance-that began your love of the outdoors and doing things, and putting yourself in a climate that most people would want to run away from. Jill:Yeah, it is exhausting, sometimes when you push yourself hard it's tiring. Sometimes you might take a few days or a week off at a time, and you just need your body to recover. But, you also feel exhilarated and you feel a lot of energy after you've finished doing the exercises and being outside. Days when I'm really tired and don't want to go, and force myself to go anyway, I always feel way better after, and I have more energy. Usually I sleep really well that night because I am tired. But, overall it makes me feel better. I did start skiing years ago, when I was young, when I was just a kid. I did that for years, and then I quit and really didn't do much outdoors. Like I said, just really got back into things a year or two ago, and I've sort of picked up snowboarding a little bit here and there. I've never really liked being cold, and that's part of why I've probably never been such an outdoors person, because here, for a lot of the months of the year it's quite cold. Now I've just learned as long as you wear the proper clothes, you don't get cold, and so you can be outside in colder temperatures or rainy weather and it's still great, and you don't have to freeze. So, it's fun. David:What's the one activity that you're doing right now that is offering the biggest blast, that you're just having the most fun at right now? Jill:I guess I'd probably have to say hiking. I don't always look forward to going. I know it's going to be difficult, I know it's going to be a lot of work, and I can't say that I'm always really excited getting up in the morning and thinking, "Oh, yeah, I'm going to push myself for two hours." Sometimes I would much rather just stay in bed, or I'd rather just do anything but that. I guess I get my motivation from knowing how great I feel at the end of it, and I feel so happy that I was able to accomplish that. So at the end of it, I feel great. Before and during, I'm not really that thrilled to do it. I prefer really just to walk, to do something a little more mellow that is not so strenuous. I could walk for hours, and I actually really enjoy that. I love that. Just smelling the air and taking in my surroundings. But the running and the hiking, I don't get so excited to do them, but I find that there's a bigger reward at the end, because I have pushed myself harder, so I just find at the end, the reward makes it worth it. David:Has this taken the place of the whole fitness club thing? Jill:Yes, I have a gym membership, I have a gym membership, but I go every few weeks maybe once, and I definitely-I don't get there very often, because I would prefer to be outside. So, yeah, I definitely would say it has taken the place of the gym. This work was released under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Source: TheLinguist