Samantha
“But for any woman who has ever been underestimated, who has ever been told that they can’t do something because they look too weak, I work hard to fight those stereotypes, which is the power I have as a strong woman.”
Samantha is an inquisitive explorer who is always seeking to reach new altitudes. Her enthusiasm for adventure has provided her with a range of experiences, from solo hikes up snow-capped mountains to starry nights sleeping in the bed of her truck. She is comfortable being uncomfortable, which has allowed her to form valuable experiences and friendships out on the trails, always taking the scenic route and never settling in one spot. After a fireworks accident almost left her blind in one eye, the period of recovery only reaffirmed her belief that tomorrow is never guaranteed; she continues to say “yes” to new opportunities, leaning whole-heartedly into her risk-taking nature and making every second count. Meet Samantha. This is her story.
K: Please introduce yourself!
S: Hi! I’m Samantha Sage. (She/her.) I grew up in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies before moving out to North Carolina for university, which is where I live now. But I haven’t been at my house for the entire year since 2016, when I started traveling as often as I could. Traveling is my favorite thing to do, so I fill my life with it as much as I can.
K: Describe or define yourself in your own words.
S: I am a free-spirited, spontaneous, and outgoing woman who craves excitement. I enjoy living a bohemian, nomadic lifestyle where my fierce independence enables me to live exactly as I want to, not necessarily as other people expect me to.
K: What is your favorite thing about yourself?
S: My favorite thing is my sense of adventure. Because of my desire to explore, I am able to take full advantage of opportunities presented to me. My adventurousness not only leads me to being comfortable joining in the escapades of random people I meet in my travels, it also allows me to seek out and create my own exciting opportunities to try new things and engage in the activities I already know I love. Being from Colorado, I am very outdoorsy. I love being outside, doing everything from rock climbing and mountaineering to kayaking or skiing. Most outdoor sports involve some level of physical risk, so having a strong sense of adventure makes it easy for me to participate without hesitation. I’m an adrenaline junkie, so I get a bizarre rush from fear. That moment right before you leap when you’re bungee jumping—looking down and knowing how high up you are—is what I live for. Without my sense of adventure, I feel like my life would have less meaning.
K: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that’s defined you or made you stronger?
S: In 2019, I was involved in a fireworks accident that left me with burns on my face and a severely injured right eye. For a week after the event, I was completely blind in that eye. The doctors weren’t able to tell if I would ever see again. Gradually, over the course of 5 months, after one ambulance ride, two visits to the ER, two emergency surgeries, and countless visits to eye doctors and cornea specialists, my vision returned almost back to normal. The permanent damage I have is manageable. I was incredibly lucky, given the circumstances. But that was the lowest period in my life. I felt completely hopeless and alone for months. I wasn’t able to do any of the things I love since I was on activity restrictions due to a blood clot in my eye. And for a while, it was uncertain whether or not I would be able to do those things ever again.
This experience made me feel weaker than I ever have before, both physically and emotionally. But after my recovery, I knew I couldn’t let that continue. Two days after I was cleared by the doctors, I booked a one-way flight to Costa Rica and left a week later for what turned into a four-month-long backpacking trip through Central and South America. The accident made it suddenly very real how fragile our bodies are. Everything can change in a split second. So I want to live life fully, all out, wide open, all the time. That trip launched a new phase in my life, where I stay strong in stressful situations and actively work to have exciting, memorable experiences as often as possible.
That trip was also my first foray into high elevation alpine mountaineering. I hadn’t tried anything of that level in the past. So by the time I took a road trip to the western U.S. in July 2020, I felt ready to take on a mountain solo. On the one-year anniversary of the accident, I climbed my first 14er in Colorado. After over 5,000 feet of elevation gain, I stood on top of a mountain when just one year earlier, I had been lying blind and burned in an ER hospital bed. It meant so much to me to accomplish something like that on that day. I had bounced back from the lowest point in my life to take on the world with a newfound enthusiasm.
K: What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
S: Stop caring what other people think of you. When I was in high school and college, I was too focused on fitting in and meeting the expectations of other people. I thought I had to get the great education, then land an impressive job right after graduation that uses my degree and skills to advance my life and, by extension, the lives of my future family. It took one 9-to-5 job for me to realize that is completely not for me. So I started working at a bar part-time solely for the freedom it afforded me. I spent my days enjoying new hobbies before heading to work at night and took time off whenever I wanted to go travel. But I know some people judged me for having graduated magna cum laude from a prestigious university—and then working at a bar, which requires no degree at all. I was constantly told that I was wasting my education and my potential. But that didn’t matter to me, because my life outside of my job made me the happiest I’d been in years. If I had realized when I was younger that people are going to judge me no matter what I do but that it doesn’t matter as long as I’m happy, then maybe things would have gone differently for me in college and right after, when I know I wasn’t satisfied with my life.
K: What does being a woman mean to you?
S: Being a woman means having the power to prove people wrong. That may sound odd, but as a 5’2” tiny female, I constantly get underestimated. I thoroughly enjoy showing those people how much I am capable of, ideally for the benefit of small women everywhere. As a woman, I am more likely to be thought incapable of doing certain things than a man anyway. Then add my compact size, my baby face that makes me look 5+ years younger than I am, and the fact that I am a woman of color to the mix and my assumed strength is diminished even more. I used to hate that, but in my adult years I decided to use it as a tool to change people’s assumptions. I regularly volunteer on construction sites building houses, I was a firefighter for three years, I drive a giant pickup truck, I can lift way more weight than it would seem, and I do woodworking projects in my spare time. I think it’s safe to say that these are unexpected aspects of my being. But for any woman who has ever been underestimated, who has ever been told that they can’t do something because they look too weak, I work hard to fight those stereotypes, which is the power I have as a strong woman.
K: Who is one woman that inspires you? What would you say to her if she were here now?
S: My French teacher from high school inspired me as a teenager and still inspires me today. Madame Wells was always enthusiastic about helping her students learn and love French, but she also connected with them beyond the classroom. Retired now, she is still in touch with tons of her former students. She inspires me as an adult because even in retirement, she is still active and travels several times a year. She continues to live fully, which is something I strive for.
If she were here now, I would thank her again and make sure she’s aware of what an impact she had. I’ve talked to her about it several times since graduation and she knows the main life events she has helped me through and how much I still admire her. In the future I hope to also become a high school French teacher, once I’m ready to stay in one place for a while. I’ve developed a passion for teaching, which I never would have if she hadn’t been so important to me for so many years.