On this episode of Appalachian Outdoorosity, Dr. Joy James, a professor in App State's Department of Recreation Management and Physical Education, interviews App State graduate, Grayson Smith. Outward Bound plated a pivotal role in Grayson's outdoor and personal development. Throughout Grayson's time in the program they faced setbacks and challenges in the outdoors and learned with the help of a community to believe in themselves and persevere. Topics covered include building community, emotional vulnerability, the fun scale and the power of journaling. Show Notes Outdoorosity Team Email: podcasts@appstate.edu Pronouns: they/him School email: smithgh@appstate.edu Instagram: ghsmith15 Outward Bound North Carolina Outward Bound Blue Ridge Parkway Overlooks and Trails Journaling Ideas Transcript Becki Welcome to Appalachian Outdoorosity where we encourage you to get outside and keep going outside. Here we will share Appalachian State stories that entertain, inspire, and inform listeners about living an active outdoor lifestyle. Each episode features a story. The goal… to get you outside and keep you going outside to improve your overall wellness. This podcast is presented by The Hope Lab, where our purpose is to investigate the role of outdoor physical activity, exercise and play on the health, environment and human development. The vision of The Hope Lab is to continue developing the foundation for promoting and supporting outdoor physical activity, exercise and play through interdisciplinary research. Feel free to check us out at hopelab.appstate.edu. Hi, my name is Becki Battista. I'm a professor in exercise science at Appalachian State University and a self-proclaimed outdoor physical activity addict. I'm your host for today's episode of the Appalachian Outdoorosity Podcast. On today's episode, team member doctor Joy James, a professor in recreation management, interviews App State recent graduate Grayson Smith where they tell us how their Outward Bound experience inspired them, and they have come full circle working for Outward Bound. Joy Hi, I'm Joy here with Grayson. Thank you for joining us, Grayson. Grayson Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Joy If you could introduce yourself, kind of tell us where you're from and what your favorite outdoor activity is. Grayson Yeah. So my name is Grayson Smith. I use they/he pronouns, I identify as trans mask. I grew up in Raleigh. Atlanta until I was about six. And then Raleigh. I call Boone home now. I've been here almost five years. Oh, gosh. Favorite outdoor activity? There's so many things I could say. I've gotten really into climbing over the past few years. That was something that I used to be pretty scared of as a teenager. And, being in the rec program here at App has really helped me, reopen up to that, that activity and, kind of push those fears away. Joy Cool. Glad to hear that. How did you first get interested in the outdoors? Grayson So I went to a high school in Raleigh that required us to go on an outbound trip as freshmen. I had never heard of Outward Bound. I had never really. I never understood that there was an outdoor industry. I didn't really go hiking as a kid. I grew up in two major cities. two major capital cities. I just didn't. I wasn't really exposed to recreation until I got to high school and went on this Outward Bound trip with my freshman class, and I was the only student that enjoyed it. And I kind of kept that to myself. I was like, ooh, this bugs and camp. Ooh, gross dirt, you know? And everybody was like, like, this is so. I loved every second of it. It was my favorite thing. My instructors probably remember me being the only person that was excited about it. So from then on, from about the age of 14, I had the goal and passion for working for Outward Bound as an instructor one day which is crazy, because eight years later, here I am. I just had my interview yesterday for that position. So. Yeah. Joy I'm so excited for you. Grayson Yeah, it's going to be exciting. Joy Just in case some of our listeners don't know what Outward Bound is. How would you describe it? Grayson Outward bound. Oh, okay. Let me see if I can make this a short definition. Outward Bound to me is a community of people and a program that provides courses like backpacking courses. there's paddling, there's climbing, all integrated. Either it can be separately. It's like just a backpacking course or all those three things together, and then various other leadership skills, communication, self-reliance, mental health, just all the kinds of things that can help shape you and help you grow as a human. Outward Bound. They just really, really care about youth, and they really care about inspiring young people to connect with nature and, you know, connect and grow more into themselves. Joy Okay. Thank you. So it's something I can pay for. I can do semester-long, week-long activities. Grayson So the courses run, typically on average from 4 to 30 days. And then we do have like, 50 day outdoor educator course around that, number of days and then also a semester course. The cool thing about NCOBS which is North Carolina Outward Bound School, is they actually run programs in a couple of different states, which is, let's see, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia. We have got someone like the Outer Banks, like beach stuff, which is kind of cool. And then, the season actually just ended, and Table Rock, which is about an hour outside of Boone, near Morganton. And so that season ended on Halloween, October 31st. And, all the people are moving down to the Everglades in Florida which is really cool. The base camp is like on an island. I've never been, but I've heard really cool stories. Then they also run a semester course in Patagonia. So, you do a month there, a month in the Everglades and a month in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm not sure of the order. I think you've got, like, a day break. Like you've obviously you're flying. You might stay in a hotel or somewhere, like, you know, but, yeah, I mean, there's so many options. Joy And so when you were in high school, was it a week, like, how long was your course? Grayson Our course was three nights and four days. Joy And you got jazzed just from three nights and four days? Grayson My gosh, yes, it was. I mean, the bus ride. They're getting out of the bus. I mean, I ended up going on a course for 30 days. I applied, I think 2 or 3 months after I got back from that trip, which is in April so I applied over the summer, got accepted to my 30 day course in Oregon that October, and was there the next summer. Joy And remind me how old you were. For the first time in high school. Grayson I was, I had oh, actually, I might have been. No, I would have been 14 about to turn 15. Joy Okay. Yeah. And so then a couple months later, you go on a 30 day course. Grayson About a year later, I applied a few months later, and then about a year later I was in Oregon. Joy Okay. So Outward Bound has really been in your life since you're about 15? Yes. Okay. Cool. All right. So the next question we have here is what are your favorite outdoor activities. You've mentioned that you enjoy climbing. What other outdoor activities do you do or enjoy? Grayson Yeah. I really like backpacking, just generally speaking. It brings me a lot of joy to carry all my things around, even though it's really heavy and can be painful at times. I just find a lot of joy in the fact that I'm just like, ooh, where's my pen? Well, I know where it is. It's right here in my pocket. You know, like I have all my things right on my person. I can put my bed anywhere. I have beautiful views, you know, I'm with my friends. I can cook them a meal. Let's see, I took a paddling class. Let's see, was it last semester or the semester before with Grace Fortune, who works at UREC now. Grayson And, that was an amazing class. I had a lot of fun. Yeah. She's great. Yeah, we had a really great time. that really opened up my passion for paddling as well. That's also something that I'll hopefully be trained in, with Outward Bound, whenever that does happen. But yeah, kayaking would be my, my preferred paddling. Joy Are you thinking kayaking like whitewater or flat water or any of it? Grayson So I have some, some flat water kayaking experience. I grew up going to summer camp, so I learned a lot of it there. and then with that paddling class we were on, all flat water. We didn't get the chance to do any whitewater. I did go to the Whitewater Center in Charlotte while I was working with Outward Bound this summer. It was a little intimidating because, you know, it's intense there. It's, you know, it's like a real rapid situation. We went rafting before, and I fell out at the top of the run and, like, was swimming all the way down. And it was just so much. And I was like, I'm not going to do the whitewater kayaking today. Joy Did water get up your nose? Grayson Oh, I thought, I thought so many bad things were going to happen to me because I swallowed the water and I couldn't get out of it. It was just so funny. But type two fun would be that. That was my type two fun experience with some white water. Joy So our listeners may not be as familiar with type one. Type two can you kind of tell us what you mean by that? Grayson Yeah. So type one fun would be like, yeah, I just had a lot of fun. Like, you did an activity and you're like, that was super cool. That was really fulfilling. That made me really happy. Type two fun would be like, in the moment I'm really kind of scared. Or I'm like, what's the outcome going to be like? This is kind of really like a roller coaster, maybe like you're going up the roller coaster, you're freaking out. And then once it falls, you're like, woohoo! Joy Yeah. G
