“I’ve seen it a hundred times. Kids running to experience something new. Mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, fire building, rock climbing, when something stops them with their hands grasped around the handlebars, a thought of ‘Can I do this?’. Sometimes they answer yes, sometimes no. It is within their subtle ‘no’ where you see the tragedy at-risk youth face every day. In their circumstances, they are trained to say, ‘no, I can’t do that.’  They do not believe it is a matter of ability but of an attribute. They don’t look like people who do it, and they don’t live like people who do it; they aren’t someone who can do it. When talking to a student I had been working with one night, I asked why they had backed out of a theatrical play they had been practicing for, and they responded with this, ‘What else is a black man supposed to do but play basketball?’ He had decided to rearrange his life because of what he believed was the only future he had. When children believe they can only do something because of the demographics they have or don’t have, we are failing them.

            Luckily, the outdoors is the great equalizer. No matter where you come from, cold is cold, hot is hot, and wet is wet. Through this lens, I support deconstructing internalized barriers under-resourced individuals often have. Further, to support an individual is to support their household and their family. Many parents lack essential soft skills that only perpetuate self-hindering thoughts, especially for their youth. The root of the underdevelopment we see is the system we allow our communities to live in. So, help me stop this cycle one trek into the outdoors at a time.”

-Gabe Garmelo