Tough Girl Podcast Person Irresponsible - Author of "Everything You Ever Taught Me". Female, fat, funny, forty-something and in her 4th year of recovery from Alcoholism. Walking 2,653 from Mexico to Canada on the PCT.
Jan 11, 2022
49:59
About Person Irresponsible in her own words: "In 2020 the world went to hell in a handbag. This isn’t exactly headline news - although it was then. I went from perfectly locatable in the Cotswolds to utterly baffled in the American wilderness when I embarked on a quest to walk from Mexico to Canada for reasons that escape me. It was most probably nothing more dramatic than a mid-life crisis. Perhaps I should have come ‘home’ but I lived in the deluded optimism the pandemic would all be over by the summer. Besides, I’d given up my home: shoving my belongings into storage, persuaded someone to look after my cat and someone else to look after my car. I did think about returning but each time I popped into civilisation to top up my supplies, I discovered a new reason to run for the hills. So 'home' became a tent: a mere flimsy bit of fabric to protect me from every conceivable terror that exists in the wilderness - bears, rattlesnakes, deserts, avalanches and other human beings. Most dangerous of all was the racket inside my head. Everything you ever taught me is my journey, relying on nothing other than the twelve steps of recovery, teaching me to take it one day at a time, one step at a time, and one bloody ginormous mountain at a time as I staggered my way along the Pacific Crest Trail. As mid-life crises go, I remain utterly clueless why mine took me from my sofa to the Canadian border via the fridge, powered only by two chubby legs and a fat arse.” New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out. The Tough Girl Podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons. Support the mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media. Visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast and subscribe - super quick and easy to do and it makes a massive difference. Thank you. Show notes
- Being called Person Irresponsible (PI)
- What life was like before the mid-life crises
- Getting married and getting divorced
- How her home drinking increased and how it took over her life
- Turning 41 and failing at dry January and dry February
- Having a bigger problem than she wanted to admit to
- Joining Alcoholics Anonymous
- Following the 12 step program
- Learning more about herself
- Why it’s never too late to make changes
- Applying for a permit for the Pacific Crest Trail
- Taking life more as it comes
- Being inspired by the film - “Wild”
- Getting obsessed with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)
- 6 months to plan and prepare
- Funding the challenge
- March 17th….
- Learning to deal with her anxiety
- Learning to not worry about the future
- The ethics behind the decision to walk the PCT during the pandemic
- Trail angels and life on the trail
- The first mile on the PCT
- When the doubts crept in
- What it was like spending time alone in nature
- Learning how to switch off her thoughts
- Attending online AA meetings while on the trail
- Making connections on the trail and waking with other people
- Wanting to write a book about the journey
- Carrying a laptop on the trail!!!
- Magical moments from the trail
- Losing a close friend
- Wanting to quit every single day
- Not knowing how she would finish the final 500 miles
- The simple joy of a hot bath
- Putting the book together
- Connect with PI and how to buy the book
- Final words of advice for women going through a mid-life crisis