Sluff Luck

Bonjour! I’m putting the final touches on this newsletter mid travel day from Paris to Denver (so chic of me, I know). In the spirit of travel, and most importantly, getting uncomfortable — we’re test driving a new name today. Please be kind. Or, actually, don’t be kind at all. Give me your honest feedback; it’s way more valuable.

I just finished the book Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less and my two main takeaways were 1) brevity is a skill I need some work on and 2) the best newsletter names have 2-3 words.

Unlucky for you all, I come here to wax poetic and get all my adjectives, adverbs, and soliloquies out of my head and into the open, so don’t count on all that much brevity. Lucky for you all, it’s time to play around with some 2-3 word names and headlines.

Backcountry Chronicles

Here we go, folks. An edition I was hoping would never come — reflecting on the ‘23-’24 ski season.

In reality, I have at least a few more ski days left this season. I’m writing this now because I’m away from Colorado for the next ~12 days and the ski days I have left will be full of spring slush and timing the melt/freeze cycle — a far cry from the powder days I was so spoiled by this year.

Once I decided the subject for this edition would be a nostalgic look-in-the-rear-view-mirror on a glorious ski season, Maybe Baby conveniently plopped into my inbox. When asked if she has any regrets, Haley Nahman reflects:

The popular idea about regrets is that they’re useless, and I agree this is the fundamental issue. Not only is it useless to regret things because mistakes are the building blocks of our lives, but also because regrets are presumptuous: In having them, we assume we know how our lives might have gone had we done things differently. Setting aside traumatic or harmful mistakes that would be impossible not to regret, most of the time we have no idea what might have happened, or who we might have become, had we “done things right.” Aside from maybe how much Zara I bought in my mid-twenties, I genuinely cannot think of a regret. I prefer to imagine that most mistakes I’ve made have actually prevented me from making bigger ones—that’s my delusion of choice. Call it the Sliding Doors effect.

Really, I’m just trying to tee up a fun way to ask myself: do I have any regrets from this season?

And, of course, the answer is no.

Thinking back on the beginning of the season, all I can think about is how uncomfortable I was. Any type of terrain that wasn’t an in-bounds groomer scared me and sent me into a spiral of self doubt. Day after day after day of pushing myself, somewhere along the way the confidence of take on steeper and more difficult terrain clicked into place.

I was reflecting with a few friends over the weekend about how backcountry skiing makes me feel fear every single time I do it — and how special that is. So seldom in my adult life do I feel fear; maybe before a big presentation or before an interview, but the experience of feeling fear every single day and continuing to move straight into it is so meaningful.

A few weeks ago when I was in Utah visiting one of my best friends in the world, we spent a full day lapping EX terrain at Solitude. A year ago, I would’ve freaked out looking down the slopes we took on — and that day, all I could think about was how much fun I was having. That day, in my eyes, was my reward for how hard I pushed myself the last 7 months.

I got into backcountry skiing even though I was scared to start and didn’t feel like I was a good enough skier. I forced myself to wake up at 4AM on weekdays to go skinning and get a lap in before work even though I was tired and nervous to go alone. I pushed myself down in-bounds runs that terrified me and told myself “you can ski this” even though my mind was screaming “no, you can’t!!” I signed up for my AIARE1 and allowed myself to get completely humbled all weekend long by a bunch of Crested Butte high schoolers.

And because of all of that, I can look back now and feel such immense gratitude for all of those moments of expansion. I pushed myself to the edge of my ability and the edge of my comfort zone, and still, somehow, managed to conjure a little voice inside of me that said “you can do this.”

All in all, I love a look back in time. Life looks so beautiful in the rear view mirror and it’s so important to give yourself that perspective (and subsequent gratitude). Maybe it’s because I’m coming off a trip that felt like straight up magic with three people I love and admire so deeply, but life always feels more open after some reflection.

Artiste Break

I had originally planned to fill this section with highlights from my first-ever art gallery, but I was blissfully offline all week and missed all the pictures/content. My friend who went and took photos for me is currently out of the office and, after my own long weekend offline, I want to give her the same luxury.

So, what I’m saying is: more to come soon. For now, enjoy the latest collection from one of my favorite artists and inspirations, Bella McGoldrick. That’s freaking colored pencil!

To Go Snacks

📚 I was in New York last weekend for a wedding and, naturally, took a trip to my favorite bookstore in the world: McNally Jackson. I picked up a copy of Quarter-life by Satya Doyle Byock and quite literally could not put it down. It’s all about the search for meaning in early adulthood and the “quarter-life crisis” so many people in their late 20’s and early 30’s find themselves in. PS: please don’t buy your books from Amazon.

🎧 My girl Katie put out a podcast episode about the Bachelorette Industrial Complex that had me laughing out loud alone in my house and feverishly nodding my head in agreement. Luckily, I have yet to attend a bachelorette with themes per night or “Bride Tribe” merch (thank you, my beloved married and engaged friends).

🎨 After the last newsletter, I became slightly (see: very) obsessed with the question does art have to be good? — mostly because there’s just so many brilliant articles on the topic. I see so many criticisms on hyper-realism, of my favorite forms of art, so I loved this article about whether or not different mediums are good or bad.

📝 Cool news alert: the freshman engineering class at CU Boulder is 41% women — the nation’s highest share of female first-year students, per the American Society for Engineering Education.

It’s May, which means wedding season is officially here. Send prayers (and airline points if you have any to spare).

- McCall 🌻

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