Shayla "Kiddo" Paradeis Laughing while Lost

Shayla "Kiddo" Paradeis is a friend of Dr. Reddick, and her journey and the revelations she encountered during her journey are of a particular interest to me. Specifically, I want to focus on her ideas of never truly being lost and learning to laugh. 

   Who is she? A very accomplished long-distance hiker, having a story literally called A Journey of 18,000 miles, she did not start that way. Originally on the path of an actor, she studied musical theater in college in Manhattan, and whilst sitting in for an audition she wouldn't get to even do for another several hours after working her job the night before she realized that wasn't what she really wanted. She moved from Manhattan to Glacier National Park Montana, and she worked in the park and fell in love with nature. While she was there, she walked 505 miles on the job, the next year she walked 924 miles, and after doing so much walking she received a book called "A walk in the woods" and with that she felt a drive to take on the Appalachian trail. 

    Now her journey continues on for a long time, from the AT to the Pacific Crest trail, to the Continental Divide, to New Zealand and the AT again, but what I want to look at how she spoke on her time on the pacific crest trail. She said something I find very important, that "Being lost is a state of mind". A concept which is mimicked in many stories, but one that is of much import. In thinking of the state of being lost as merely a state of mind, one can change their circumstance from the state of being lost, to being still on the path of a journey. In her travels she wandered with a map and compass, no phone, no modern assistance, just herself and her comprehension of wayfinding vs. the trail. She left it many times, found herself away from where she wanted to be. Did she get angry or despondent when she had to return? Did it stop her hen her effort fell through? No, she retraced her steps and found her way. She wasn't lost, just still traveling.

    Her time on the trail got cut short as she got snowed in along the way north, and in a semi taboo act, she and a few others took a car north to a particular lake to circumvent the snow. This was dissatisfactory for her, so she hitchhiked back south and re-climbed the trail, and on a day where nothing was going right, when she came upon a particularly bad stretch of trail, after hail and wind and cold, after so much wandering and effort, instead of giving in to despair she began to laugh. She saw the comedy in the effort, the hilarity of the effort she had put in and the sheer volume of everything made her laugh. She saw her home, hiking back along the road because her plotted route closed down, and laughed in a mad way. The madness I believe comes from seeing the world in a new light, having become different through her journey. 

    These two moments, these two mindsets, these two experiences are powerful demonstrations of the way a journey effects the pilgrim. She started off unsure and looking for direction and ended up learning how she did not need to have a direction, just a goal, and laughing in the face of the uncertain and difficult times. This harkens back to the shrugging off of the marketplace idea, she left behind and abandoned the path she was on, seeking new ideas on the journey. People have trouble learning to laugh about the difficulties life sends at them, she found that on the trail. 

Notes taken to assist in the writing.

walked the AT same year as kip but without meeting him, walked the pacific crest and the continental divide and the new zealand islands and threw a ring into "mount doom" 

Believes that everything is a collaboration and breaking down the performer/audience barrier , 

on a journey you fuzz where you end and the trail begins

went to school for musical theater in manhattan, moved from nyc to glacier national park at 21 because she didn't want the life of small time acting, and feel in love with the wilderness.

2008, she walked 505 miles, the next year she walked 924 miles, and she didn't feel like it was too much, received a copy of "A walk in the woods" by bill bryson and was inspired to walk the Appalachian trail in 2011 at 24, hoping for the best.

She took the walk because her upbringing an her schooling was rough. She was worn down by the yelling and the trail looked like it would provide solace. She was wrong, it was also rough, but rough in a new way. She could shrug off the village, she pushed and forced herself trying to prove herself and ending the trail changed her life. She lost 26 lbs when she did not have that kind of weight to lose, she developed a better connection to herself and her body, learned reciprocity and began to take care of herself more. 

After the trail she returned to montana and she asked herself what was to come. She reflected on her feelings about the trail and the incongruity and the way she would act in the woods, and the ease of life in modernity. She wanted to choose to believe that life and people were good, and to then approach the world with and open heart and arms.

The pacific crest trail 2013, she chooses to wander again and this time to truly enjoy it. she set out to hike the 2665 miles from mexico to canada. crater lake to the mojave desert and more. She did get "grumpy" along the trail but in seeing the experiences and locations around her made her happy.

Continental divide trail 2015, she heard this was the next in the set and was a great challenge, an unestablished route along the rocky mountains from mexico to canada. All of the storms collide over the divide and she was without a phone and using a map and compass she spent her time lost. She believes that lost is a state of mind however, and if she prepped right, being lost doesn't stop her. She got rocked. New mexico was a bastard and it hailed and stormed and with river crossings and she was challenged and hurt and probably poisoned by weird water, but she saw the beauty of the opportunities she explored and experienced. Free to express her emptions without the judgement of the world, she raged against the storm and the path and the journey, and she worked through the emotions she had pent up. She got to colarado and had to stop as it was terribly snowed in and she drove up north to a lake to circumvent the snow and she realized that she doesn't have to follow the path that was set out for her, at the time, her brother was diagnosed with many mental health disorders and her sister got cancer. 

She then decided to go hitchhiking south from wyoming to new mexico. in hitchhiking south, she spoke about her insecurity, their sister's cancer diagnoses, and she learned about his life, got some poetry, and was inspired by the kindness of others. She wrote some poetry about how the different people she hitchhiked with reacted and interacted with her in her story and theirs. There is immense power in your vulnerability and he immersing of oneself in human connection. After she got done hitchhiking and started wandering north again, she found herself "grumpy and hissy" and found herself changed and instead of being upset, she began to laugh, and found everything funny since. She tried to get into a particular patch of forest, but it shut down and she decided to walk 148 miles north on the road through the blackfoot reservation and saw her home in the national park she laughed in a primal and mad way.

She got up  to the top of the north and it changed her life forever. She heard a roaring laughter when she called to the mountains to ask for what it was the journey was supposed to give her at the end and she saw that it was what she found in herself along the way. She abandoned the though of what she should be doing and just started doing. she gave up on "the plan" and found joy, peace, and a want to show the world and humans that they are beautiful, and that there will be beauty.

Throwing yourself on the winds (people) in hitchhiking

And so by 28 she had completed the three major trails of the united states and had but one thing left to do. She went to the Te Araroa of new zealand in 2017/18 with her partner craig (no just a friend, they broke up on the walk). she walked southbound, hoping to see but missing the kiwi. She walked on beaches, through muddy forests, and she canoed for 3 days. She walked until there was nowhere left to step and it changed her life forever. As she walked this trail, her godmother, her aunt, died of cancer.

She went back to the states and decided she had to do the AT again. She knew how to pack, how to dress, and how to think, and this time she had a blast.  

 Journey of 18000 miles