Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018 - 67

THAT NIGHT, I FINALLY RESPOND TO MY
MOTHER'S TEXT. OUT ON THE STREETS,
I CAN STILL HEAR GUNFIRE BUT IT'S
NOT THE SOUND OF DISTANT FIGHTING:
THESE ARE JUBILANT, CITY-WIDE CELEBRATIONS. ISIS HAS BEEN DEFEATED.
FAST FORWARD. "HOW ARE THINGS GOING?" THE TEXT READS. MY
mother still lives in Las Vegas and she's understandably nervous about
my job, but handling it well. I've just arrived back in Benghazi, Libya,
for another four-week stint with a charity organization that teaches
low- and middle-income countries how to give cardiac care to children born with heart defects, open heart surgery and all. Following in
my mother's footsteps, I got a nursing degree, specializing in caring for
children after heart surgery. I launched my career at the prestigious
Stanford Children's Hospital and after years of training, I got myself
a job working for a U.S.-based international charity called Novick
Cardiac Alliance. The only position that they had was in the Middle
East, specifically Libya and Iraq. I signed up.
A jarring alarm blares. I turn my eyes away from my mother's text
and back to the child before me. She had undergone surgery that morning and now she's not breathing well. Another alarm goes off-this one
from the breathing machine. It means it can't deliver the air this little
girl needs to live. A sandy, hot breeze blows off the Mediterranean into
this sweltering ICU, but it's not enough to cool the feverish little patient
(or her very sweaty nurse). Just a few miles away, ISIS is on its last legs
as a military force supported by Libyan General Haftar deftly moves in.
Suddenly, a massive explosion rings out from where the battle is raging,
rattling the hospital windows. The local nurses giggle at my worried
expression. "Celebrations" they tell me and then casually return to their
work. I call the doctor over and, with a local nurse, we stabilize the girl.
That night, I finally respond to my mother's text. Out on the streets,
I can still hear gunfire, but it's not the sound of distant fighting: These
are jubilant, city-wide celebrations. ISIS has been defeated. The little
patient from today is healing nicely after her open heart surgery, and
now Benghazi is also, at long last, beginning to heal.

With the trailblazing help of the women who came before me, I have
been able to pursue a wild, unusual, and beautiful life. I walk in the
path of historical figures like Harriet Tubman who repeatedly crossed
into enemy territory to save fellow slaves, exemplifying the depth of
possibility in female courage and compassion; of pioneering mountaineers like Arlene Blum, who led all-female expeditions on high-altitude peaks in the 1970s despite the naysayers who openly called women
the "weaker sex"; and, most importantly, my mother, who taught me
self-confidence and love.
These examples of strong women overcoming hurdles and going
big in all aspects of life cannot be overlooked. And as the next generation of girls grow up to be fantastic women of their own making,
I hope the outdoor industry can continue to bolster them through
encouragement and opportunities for creation, but also by enabling
self-directed exploration. A good friend once wrote to me that, "We
are the echoes of our ancestors." His words highlight the importance
of acknowledging the work of those who came before us and why it's
necessary to think consciously about the voice that I, and we as a collective in the outdoor world, put forward. O.R.

FAST FORWARD. WHEN I'M NOT NURSING, I DEDICATE MOST OF MY
time to rock-climbing large monoliths. I have made record-setting
speed ascents of Yosemite's big walls-it's a high-paced, high-stress,
and high-risk style that actually requires me to pull from childhood
experiences. The freedom that came from my mother's encouragement of self-directed limit-testing allowed me to build confidence in
my own assessments and physical skills. Her support-steadfast, even
when I was told I couldn't pitch because I was a girl-enabled me to
learn how to ignore what others had to say about my goals and simply
pursue them.
Summer 2018/ OUTDOOR RETAILER 67

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Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2018

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