Step by Step: Seeing the World With LT Teresa Meadows

My number one reason why I like hiking and being outdoors in general is not necessarily for the physical aspect of it. While it's great and it keeps you healthy, it's really the internal feelings that I've always gotten with hiking. It's just the peace of mind. I feel like hiking, you know, I don't hike with music and I don't throw shade at people that do, but hiking and being out in nature, being one with nature, it just really allows you to have a lot of self-reflection, and I think that's really important. To me, that's a feeling I've not necessarily received elsewhere, and so to me, you know, hiking and being outdoors has always brought that reassurance and that calming feeling. Follow me! I think I had always enjoyed it, but I definitely think that my knowledge on how to prepare for a hike and what to bring on a hike has greatly improved. There was a whole lot to learn. It's a whole, you know, it's its own whole hobby, and even to this day, I mean, I'm still learning, still getting new gear, still have Amazon packages coming with updated gear and things that kind of just make the whole experience a I owe most of my travel to the Navy. You know, I did my first tour on a ship, got to go to four new countries that I'd never been to, and then my two years in Europe, just being able to do 27 countries there in two years. My time in the Navy has 100% brought me some of the best experiences that I've had in my young adult life so far, and I will always be grateful for that and always be thankful for that. I grew up in a really small town in southern Mississippi, didn't really see a lot of the world, didn't really see much of the country. That was a very big pull for me whenever I was growing up, and also seeing that with my dad, just coming back from deployments, bringing souvenirs, it was always so interesting to me. It's like, you know, just I didn't know what that world looked like out there, and it was always fascinating, but I had never really gotten a glimpse into that, never traveled outside the states when I was growing up, and so I never had exposure to that. It was always interesting to me. I always kind of want to scratch that itch, and I knew I would get that in the Navy. I would say that's definitely being stationed in Hawaii on my first tour is what kind of started this whole life that I've built for myself now. Yes, so I did two years in Hawaii, and then after that kind of took an unconventional career path, and I went over to Europe for two years, so it opened my eyes even more, and yeah, while I was over there, I got to see 27 new countries in my two years there, so I was, you know, if you do the quick math, I was always somewhere new, a couple countries a month sometimes, and yeah, I look back on those two years and truly some of the best times. One country and experience that's probably one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life was a trip I took to Norway. I went up there by myself. I had never been to Norway before, but the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen in my life, and just the most euphoric experience, absolutely incredible, emotional, as strange as that is to say, but you know, seeing animals in their natural environment, ones that I studied and read about since I was probably five years old, was such an incredible experience. When people ask me about travel, that is the story of those just four days of what I always relate. Those two years in Europe definitely was my leap pad into, you know, who I am now, and what I do now, and kind of what I advocate for, and stand for, and try to inspire people to do. There's so much you can learn about yourself when you're doing things on your own without the assist of other people. I truly love what I do, like in the Navy. I truly love my job, and almost everything that I do with my job is very, very similar to what I do outside of my job too, and so the two kind of co-exist, and for me that's really awesome. You know, you have to work hard, give your piece of the puzzle to whatever job that you're working with, but then that's also your opportunity to give that time and give those opportunities back to yourself to be able to enjoy what you really truly like to do outside of a work environment. I think any service partial to the Navy is great at setting you up for what you might want to do next. You know, I've talked about these cultural experiences around the world, but joining the Navy is kind of a cultural experience in itself. You get to meet people from all walks of life, all kinds of backgrounds, from different countries, different ages, you know, different family backgrounds, and that alone I think has made me a more well-rounded person. You know, your time in the Navy is going to be different from every other person's time in the Navy. You know, I've done my time on ships, I've done my time, you know, with expeditionary, and I've had kind of check marks in all the different boxes. I would say even if it's not going to be some robust, you know, travel that you end up getting to do in the Navy, even those small experiences are going to provide a profound experience for you, and they're going to teach you something, you're going to learn something, and at the end of the day you're probably going to have a greater appreciation for everything. If you're going out on a hike, you know, I try to leave my stress behind. Like, I am there to enjoy what I'm doing, to take that moment to realize all this beauty that's around you, but also take a moment for yourself to realize, okay, where am I at right now? How can I do better? What do I want to do better? How can I reach that? You just have to take it step by step, no pun intended, and to just enjoy it, and you know, anyone physically capable is capable of getting outside and doing something that might bring them a little bit of happiness. I'll have those memories for the rest of my life. I'll be able to share those stories for the rest of my life, and I think that's pretty awesome.