You Don’t Have to Choose Just One Thing
How I Built My Own Career Path Instead of Following Someone Else's Blueprint
For most of my life, I thought I was supposed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
Not just a job. Not just a career. THE career. The thing I was meant to do.
That expectation made choosing a direction feel incredibly difficult.
I changed my college major more times than I can count. I worked seasonal jobs, waited tables, taught skiing and climbing, lifeguarded, taught swimming, coached aerial arts, and spent years living the ski-bum life. I eventually earned a bachelor's degree in health education and became a teacher, even though somewhere along the way, I had already started to realize that traditional education wasn't where I wanted to spend my life.
From the outside, it probably looked like I couldn't make up my mind. For a long time, I worried that maybe that was true. What I eventually realized was that I wasn't failing to find my path. I was trying to find one path when I was actually meant to build my own.
The Career I Was "Supposed" to Have
Growing up, I absorbed the idea that everyone had a purpose and that we were supposed to figure out what that purpose was. So when I didn't know what I wanted to major in, what career I wanted, or where I saw myself ten years down the road, I felt like I was doing something wrong.
I tried to make decisions based on what seemed practical, responsible, or expected of me. Eventually, I graduated with a degree that qualified me for a stable career, but I already knew I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing it.
That realization was uncomfortable. It was also freeing.
I started giving myself permission to take seriously the things I had always loved: mountains, skiing, climbing, photography, movement, teaching, and adventure.
I began to see that the seemingly unrelated jobs I'd held weren't actually unrelated at all.
- Teaching taught me how to communicate.
- Coaching taught me how to help people develop confidence and capability.
- Working in the mountains taught me how to assess risk, make decisions, and adapt when conditions change.
- Photography taught me how to create and communicate visually.
- And years of pursuing my own athletic and mountain goals taught me lessons that no classroom could have given me.
None of those experiences were wasted simply because they weren't part of one carefully planned career trajectory. They became the pieces I could eventually put together myself.
Building Instead of Finding
Today, my work encompasses mountain athletics, outdoor education, coaching, photography, creative work, and adventure content.
I photograph people experiencing the outdoors. I create educational content. I teach mountain skills and athletic development. I document adventures. I work with outdoor brands. I speak and collaborate. I continue pursuing my own goals as a mountain athlete.
It doesn't fit neatly into one job title. And I'm finally okay with that.
In fact, I've come to believe that one of the greatest career advantages we can give ourselves is the willingness to stop asking, "What am I supposed to be?" and start asking, "What can I build from the things that matter to me?"
You don't necessarily have to choose between being an athlete and an educator. You don't have to choose between being creative and analytical. You don't have to choose between having a career and having a life that you genuinely enjoy living. And you don't have to decide today what you will still be doing twenty years from now.
Your Path Doesn't Have to Be Straight
The outdoor industry has taught me a lot about this.
When you're navigating a mountain, the most obvious route isn't always the best one. Sometimes the terrain forces you to change direction. Sometimes the weather changes. Sometimes the route you planned doesn't exist when you actually get there.
You reassess. You adapt. You keep moving.
Careers can work the same way.
- A job you leave isn't necessarily a failure.
- A degree you don't use isn't necessarily wasted.
- Changing direction doesn't mean you made the wrong choice.
Sometimes you have to experience something to learn that it isn't for you. And sometimes the things that seem completely unrelated at the time become incredibly valuable later.
I still don't know exactly what my career will look like ten years from now. And honestly, I don't think I need to.
I'm much more interested in building something that feels authentic to who I am now and leaving room for it to evolve as I do.
Build a Life That Belongs to You
If you're a woman trying to figure out your own career path, especially in an industry where you don't always see people who look like you in the roles you're interested in, don't underestimate the value of creating your own route.
The outdoor industry needs women in all kinds of roles: athletes, guides, educators, scientists, conservationists, photographers, filmmakers, coaches, leaders, and business owners.
You don't have to fit yourself into someone else's definition of what that career is supposed to look like.
- Take the opportunities that teach you something.
- Pay attention to what energizes you and what doesn't.
- Let yourself change your mind.
- Don't be afraid to pursue something simply because you love it.
- And don't assume that every decision has to be permanent.
Most importantly, give yourself permission to take your time.
You don't need to have the next twenty years figured out. You don't need to discover one perfect calling that explains everything you've ever done.
Your career can be a collection of chapters. You can carry the skills, experiences, relationships, and lessons from one chapter into the next. You can change direction. You can start over. You can build something that didn't exist before.
You don't have to choose just one thing.
You get to decide what matters to you and then build a life around it.
