Between college and highschool, I took a gap year. I wanted to take some time and figure out what I wanted to do with my life before jumping headfirst into college. While I had the opportunity to travel around the world, one of my most memorable experiences was when I had the opportunity to go up to New Hampshire and obtain my Wilderness EMT. I had been an EMT for 2 years before that, but the outdoors had always been, and still is, one of my biggest passions. I thought it was a great opportunity to combine two passions together; helping people and the outdoors. The course took place over a week in Conway, New Hampshire at the SOLO School, which specializes in wilderness medicine. The goal of the course was to teach EMTs how to properly administer care in a remote setting, adapting and using limited supplies and materials one might find in the wilderness. For that week, myself and 10 other students learned how to do everything from basic first aid in the woods, to making stretchers out of branches and string, to carrying someone out of the woods safely and as fast as possible. It taught us how to pivot and adapt to situations quickly where we might not have all the supplies we need and we might be far away from a healthcare facility. We spent a week in the woods, working closely as a team to come up with solutions to problems. This class, though it was almost 20 years ago, has stuck with me ever since, teaching me how to be adaptable in situations and be creative in solutions. Since then, I have been in jobs and situations that require adaptability and I think my ability to be flexible stems from this class. Nursing is a second career for me, while teaching was my first. Working in medicine has always been something I have wanted to do, though life is not always a straight path and I decided to be a teacher while in college. Though it took a few years, I am excited to be able to return to the medicine field and go to nursing school. I think about my road to get here and how I needed to adapt to different situations along the way. I think the experience of my WEMT class taught me how to be resilient and adjust to different situations. I also think that the background I have in being an EMT will help me be a better nurse, since it has set the groundwork for thinking quickly on my feet. As a nurse, I would love to return to outdoor medicine in some way, tying my two passions together once again.