HINDSIGHT

Interviewer: Whenever you're ready. All right, Elyse, could you walk us through your motivation for creating The Outdoorsman's Footprint and what made this experience so memorable for you? Elyse: Yeah. I actually wrote the essay/article for a class. It was a technical writing class. As engineers, we have to take a class on technical writing, and we wrote an essay about some sort of sustainability topic. I had just gone with the Alpine Club on an outdoor climbing trip that had a really big impact on me. It was my first time climbing outside, so I knew that was what I wanted to write about. And even though I'm an engineer, I've always really liked writing—it's always been something I've done as a hobby. So I wanted to not only write about my experience in a concrete sustainability way, but also do a little bit of storytelling, which I was glad to be able to do. So yeah, I'd say that's what made it memorable. I was able to find the time in college to write again—to argue for a point, but also have a little fun with it. Interviewer: All right. And to follow up with that, how did you first hear about the Changing Skies Journal, and what made you want to submit your piece and try to be a part of it? Elyse: Yeah, I first heard about the journal from my professor. He read my essay and thought it was really cool. He encouraged not only me but many people in the class to submit our essays. I did some research into what the Changing Skies Journal is, because I wanted to see what types of things you all publish. And yeah, I was interested and thought it’d be a good fit. I’ve never had something of mine published officially, so I was excited to do that.