Emily Megee joins the show to discuss her five summers on staff and three unique summers as a participant.  On Rayado, she came off the trail with a new vision of what it could mean to be a positive, impactful person in life.  And how impactful friendship is defined.  She encountered moments of clarity - where the world could be both big and terrible, and slow and beautiful all at once.  These moments and many more solidified her passion towards the person she is and the work she does today.

While living and working in the backcountry, Emily learned all necessary practical skills for life.  Philmont gave her the time and space to develop into her authentic self.  Her year as ACD at Head of Dean drove her to want to show up differently, and be a better leader.  As backcountry manager, she tackled the challenging balance of growing backcountry staff while supporting them.  The same concept that crews strive to follow - let the scouts lead, and the adults support.  Emily chats about successful leadership which she believes focuses on listening, outsourcing what you cannot alone solve, and forgetting not the bigger picture of why you are at the ranch.

Today Emily is an REI Store Manager in Woodbridge, VA.  She equates her role at REI to that of BCM, creating relationships with her team and discovering what inspires them.  Emily believes that if you show up for others, they’ll show up for you.  In 2018 she was selected and nominated by her peers to receive the REI Anderson Award, which recognizes team members whose contributions exemplify REI’s Core Values and support their Mission.

Final quote Emily shares: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Rainer Maria Rilke

Philmont Experience:
2008 - Regular trek with venture crew
2009 - Rayado
2010 - ROCS

2011 - PC Carson Meadows
2012 - PC Dan Beard
2013 - ACD Head of Dean
2014 - CD Sawmill
2015 - BCM

Emily would like to encourage listeners to check out The Venture Out Project. They are a group that help get queer and transgender individuals outside.

Notable Mentions:
Allison King
Carrie Anderson
Lindsay Hickman Johnson
Allison Vinson Defrees
Briana Howland
Matt Hubbard
Jimmy Lowe
Jimmy Fritz
Sean and Lela Murphy
Lee Ferin
Zac Garmore
Austin St. George
Nichole Butler

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