Twenty years ago, I was 16 on top of the teenage mountain looking out at the rest of my life. My relay team had won a state title and I had just gotten my driver’s license.
    But then I started my descent into a valley. As my husband Carl says, “Life is peaks and valleys.” Some are far higher than others and some are much, much deeper.
    On April 9, 1999, an F4 tornado struck my community. As my mother, four younger sisters and I huddled at the bottom of our basement stairs, the storm blew over our house sparring it. Those of dozens of others including close friends, teammates, classmates, and my boyfriend, were not. Two-thirds of our community was devastated.  
    Over the next few weeks as we helped in the clean up I saw firsthand the devastation and loss and began to feel enormous guilt for my good fortune. I slipped into what I now recognize as a depression. As it deepened I skipped classes and swim practice, drank alcohol and snuck out with friends.
    Late in May I sat down on the porch swing with my mother and exploded into a sobbing confession. She wrapped me in her arms until I calmed down. Then she sprang into action.
    She immediately took me to see a psychologist for counseling but also signed me up for a trip of a lifetime - six weeks of outdoor adventures in the Pacific Northwest, including four separate week-long backpacking trips, a week-long whitewater rafting trip and a summit attempt of Mount Rainier.
    The youth adventure and leadership development program, Wilderness Ventures,  was founded by a pair of teachers from my mother’s alma mater. When she was 16 they had taken her on a similar trip and it had changed her life.
    It changed mine forever too. It was the first summer of my life that I didn’t spend every waking minute at the swimming pool. I never went to summer camp and had missed many family vacations to train and compete.
    Those weeks of sleeping under the stars or in a tent, traveling with a group of nine other teens and our two adult leaders was challenging but inspiring. As I overcame obstacles and achieved goals, (I climbed to the the top of Mount Rainier!)  my shattered self-confidence began to heal. I began building a new sense of self and again felt hope for the future.
    I came home rejuvenated. I shed friends who weren't really friends; I dove back into my training with new energy and I returned to being the straight A student I had always been and would continue to be through college.
    In the years since I’ve learned that for me spending time in nature - particularly the wilderness - is a necessity for my survival. The wild is a source of beauty that calms and serves as a balm, healing the wounds acquired from everyday life in the modern, hectic world.
    There is now empirical scientific evidence that “wilderness therapy” works in combating anxiety and depression.  Spending time in the wild helps develop coping strategies and builds self-confidence while boosting mood. All things I can attest to as both a teen and adult.
    In 2013, another severe bout of depression set in with debilitating anxiety. At one point I was unable to write even a single sentence without descending into a full-blown panic attack. There were days when the only thing I could do without crying or struggling to breathe was sit at a kitchen window to watch the birds in my flower garden.
    Then, I began to take monthly long-weekend hikes with my dad on the Sheltowee Trace. Once again the wilderness was transformative, helping me to retake control of my emotions and life. (Counseling and medication were part of my therapy too).
    The rhythm of the natural world reminds me there is joy and fulfillment in the fundamental elements of life. The only things that are truly important is finding fresh water to drink, having food to eat and secure shelter to sleep in. If I have those things, I can survive.
    To borrow the words of a wise man, “Everything else is just gravy.”