Ep.01: Meet Your Hosts

In the first episode of Appalachian Outdoorosity we explain what the podcast is about and introduce you to our team. Melissa Weddell, Becki Battista and Joy James share a bit themselves as well as some stories about their time together in the outdoors.  

Transcript:

Melissa Weddell:
Welcome to Outdoorosity, the get outside and keep going outside podcast, where we share Appalachian State stories to entertain, inspire, and inform listeners about living an active outdoor lifestyle. Each episode features a story with the goal to get you outside and keep you going outside to improve your overall wellness. Our goal is to promote Healthy Outdoor Play & Exercise across the lifespan or what we call HOPE.

Melissa Weddell:
The HOPE Lab, where our purpose is to investigate the role of outdoor physical activity, exercise, and play on health, the environment, and human development, the vision of the HOPE Lab is to continue developing the scientific foundation for promoting and supporting outdoor physical activity, exercise, and play through interdisciplinary research. You can check us out online at hopelab.appstate.edu. My name is Melissa Weddell.

Melissa Weddell:
Today, we are going to introduce your three hosts. But before we get started, we wanted to share with you some benefits of being in the outdoors. According to the American Public Health Association, people of all ages and ability enjoy higher levels of health and well-being when they have nature nearby in parks, gardens, green ways, naturalized school yards and playgrounds, and natural landscaping around homes and workplaces.

Melissa Weddell:
Access to nature has been related to lower levels of mortality and illness, higher levels of outdoor physical activity, restoration from stress, and a greater sense of well-being and social capital. The integration of nature into towns and cities has secondary benefits that contribute to better health and more sustainable societies.

Melissa Weddell:
Given the importance of contact with nature for well-being, the American Public Health Association and the HOPE Lab supports the protection and restoration of nature and the environment where people live, work, and play at every scale, from building sites to large regional park systems and ecologically sustainable rural areas. With that said, we would like to introduce ourselves as host. Joy James, would you like to go first?

Joy James:
Yes. I am a professor of recreation management here at Appalachian State University. I teach a lot about how people spend time in the outdoors. I thought I'd share with you a little bit about how I came to love or realize the outdoors was a space that I wanted to be in. Imagine the possibilities within yourself and the outdoors, and then transferring it to daily life. And that's sort of like what Melissa was saying were some of the benefits. That's what happened to me as a young girl who was shy and lacked confidence.

Joy James:
I was involved in Girl Scouts, which is already a nerdy thing to do, right? And a strike against me in the popular crowd. But I found I loved it because it was all about getting outdoors and I was learning backpacking and camping and having fun and goofing off and really making connections with the other girls. It was also something that my other classmates weren't doing. I could come back after a weekend and said, "I was learning disco," which has nothing to do with that outdoors.

Joy James:
But I also could come back and say, "I went backpacking, or I went camping." One formidable experience for me was our troop went hiking to Mount LeConte Lodge, which is a lodge in the Smokeys near Gatlinburg when I was about 15 years old. This was kind of like a precursor to backpacking for me. We didn't have to bring a sleeping bag. We didn't have to bring cooking gear. The lodge provided food and a place for us to rest. All I had to do was just hike up there with a change of clothes.

Joy James:
Also, it was unusual for me being from Georgia. The elevation was about 6,593 feet. And not having ever seen anything like that or hiked anything like that was a daunting task that I wasn't quite sure I was capable of doing it. I don't remember how many people were in the group, but what I do remember about the number in our troop was we had three groups, a fast group, a medium group, and a slow group.

Joy James:
I was the only one that was in the medium group, because I was not very fast and I wasn't slow at the time, although my two friends here would say I'm slow now. At that time, I was a little more of a medium, and I could yo-yo between the two groups. What would happen is I would be by myself, and then I would catch up to the fast group and chat with them. And then I would wait for the other group while the fast group took off, and then talk with the slow group, and then I would take off.

Joy James:
What I started to it was this sense of I didn't mind being by myself in the woods, but I also got to be social. It was the best of both worlds. I really loved it. I was in nature and I could meet the physical challenge, while not necessarily taking away from other people's experiences. I was able to go at my own pace. When I was hiking with the other groups, if I did stay with them, I felt like I was being supportive and I was growing comfortable with others and making connections.

Joy James:
When we reached the lodge at the top, we met other interesting hikers who found it interesting that this Girl Scout troop was hiking. They also told stories about their personal adventures. I just wanted more of that. That's kind of a pinnacle experience for me where I realized I was capable. I was also could be by myself, but I also was liked for who I was and what I brought to the table and being supportive. This adventure while little and not very big in scope, it led to me becoming a camp counselor, a bike tour guide.

Joy James:
I went on to be a park ranger, a sea kayak guide, and ultimately where I am today, sitting here behind this microphone talking to you guys, a professor of recreation. The outdoor has always given me confidence in life, which has translated into my professional and personal success. I have to say without the outdoors and the recreation activities I did in the past some years, I would not be who I am today, confident and adventurous.

Melissa Weddell:
Thank you, Joy. We really appreciate you sharing that story and all the people and students that clearly you've impacted along the way. I think what's great is that you've been able to turn that into your full-time career. We get to share that with students here at Appalachian State. Up next, another researcher and host, Dr. Becki Battista.

Becki Battista:
Hi, thanks for the introduction. My name is Becki Battista, and I am a professor in the department of health and exercise science. My area really is around exercise. If you've had a class with me or have any vague knowledge of what I do, I'm all about promoting physical activity. When I think about the outdoors and why this area is really of interest to me, I think, as I reflect back on it, it really goes back to I love sports. I always have loved sports. My parents were active. My dad played softball.

Becki Battista:
My brother played soccer. Sports were just a part of my life since probably age five. All the sports I did were always outside. It was soccer. I wanted to play football when I was little. I mean, everything that you could imagine I wanted to try. Because my dad was in the Air Force, we moved around a lot. When I think about where I'm really from, I am really from Delaware, but we lived in Texas, and we lived in Virginia, and we lived in Alabama.

Becki Battista:
And in all of those places, I remember as a kid going back into the streams and trying to catch tadpoles or going camping all the time in Alabama. We had a camper. As a family, we joined a camping group. We always went out on weekends in the State of Alabama, which there are some pretty phenomenal camping places. I remember one specifically that was around a lake. I loved going to that one particular campground because it was just... You could ride bikes everywhere.

Becki Battista:
You could go swimming in the lake, and you could go hiking on the trails, which my brother and I did quite often. But then we moved to Delaware when I was probably 10 and Delaware, super small state, but Delaware is along the coast. I started to have friends that always went down to the beach. And all of a sudden, the beach became like my happy place. It was just relaxing, the sound of the wave, just walking along the ocean. I mean, it was really just a great place to be.

Becki Battista:
I thought I always want to live near the beach. Well, my life kind of changed a little bit with all the education that I had. I was a PE major, again, because I love sports, and I ended up moving to Colorado. In Colorado, there's mountains. And all of a sudden, I realized, these are pretty spectacular also. I lived in Colorado at a time that I was by myself. I wasn't making a lot of money. I was out of graduate school, and I would have to do things on my own. I'd go hiking. I'd go running on the trails.

Becki Battista:
Just kind of learning how to navigate that by yourself is a little bit of a challenge, but it was so beautiful that I couldn't resist. Everybody in Colorado always goes outside. If you're not outside, it's strange. After I moved from Colorado and I went to graduate school to get my PhD in growth and motor development, from there, I learned a few things about Michigan. The State of Michigan is also beautiful. It had some great lakes and had some great outdoor adventures when I was in Michigan.

Becki Battista:
And then from Michigan, I moved to Wisconsin, and I think that's where I kind of brought my childhood memories into my adult world, where I always loved being outside. I loved playing sports. In Wisconsin, I met a colleague who was a physical education person and he was all about outdoor education. I was intrigued by this because Wisconsin also has some beautiful outdoor areas and I was always willing to kind of go up for a challenge.

Becki Battista:
He asked me one day if I wanted to go on a trip with some students to Colorado and go rock climbing. Well, who's going to pass up a trip to go to Colorado? It was really at that time watching what he did with those students and allowing me to be a part of that which solidified my absolute love of the outdoors and I think made me understand that outdoors can be part of my research interest. I love of being active. I love being outside.

Becki Battista:
That time spent in Colorado seeing the students, graduate students and undergraduate students, climb rocks, which was a challenge all within itself, really kind of solidified why I think the outdoors to me is a place of comfort. It allows me to feel kind of whole again. If I am stressed out, I'll go for a walk in the woods. All I have to do is just stand and look around and just the beauty of the trees and the sun shining through the trees, it's just amazing.

Becki Battista:
For me, it's a way to get my physical activity and it's a way to kind of destress a little bit. I would not have known that if it wasn't for kind of participating in some research that related back to physical education. That's kind of my story.

Melissa Weddell:
Thank you, Becki. Not only do you share this with your students, you have been one of the founding members of the HOPE Lab, but you keep us all on a schedule. We can find you out at Moses Cone running on Saturday mornings, and you are very consistent with your physical activity outdoors. Always a great adventure partner. Thank you both. You've heard my voice from the beginning. My name is Melissa Weddell.

Melissa Weddell:
I teach also in recreation management with Dr. Joy James, but all of us are in the college of health science. We have packaged this together to talk about physical activity and health and wellness and in outdoors. My story's a little bit different. I'm originally from Northern Indiana. I grew up on a large farm. I did not realize at the time as a young girl all the access to outdoors that I had in my comfort with the outdoors. We were able to ride horses all around the county.

Melissa Weddell:
My grandparents had a lake cottage. I wouldn't think about it in the terms that you would today as some really nice second home. They built it in the '60s. We'd be at the lakes on the weekends and playing indoors just wasn't something that we did. We also didn't have air conditioning in the summer, so no one wanted to be inside. I grew up hunting and fishing, and we would go sit in the woods for hours in the fall. And as a young girl, I didn't always like that. But later on, I realized how much I cherished that time.

Melissa Weddell:
That's really where I started to develop this love of the outdoors. In terms of camping and hiking and mountain biking and all this stuff, we didn't really do any of that. We lived on so much land that that wasn't what we did for vacation. That was kind of everyday life. When I went away to graduate school, I met various people that started to do all of this outdoor recreation. I was able to get a mountain bike and start mountain biking in all these cool destinations.

Melissa Weddell:
I will say that it was very challenging and it was a new way to experience the outdoors. And much like Becki talked about, it was a real place of restoration for me to not only have the physical aspect, but to be in these beautiful surroundings. Some of the takeaways that I've had have been... I do love to be in the outdoors and suffer. I like things to be hard. It makes me... If I have a really hard mountain bike ride, I forget whatever stress I had. I'm physically challenging myself.

Melissa Weddell:
I also am one of those people that enjoy a little thrill or an adrenaline rush. When you're in your tent at night, if you hear something outside, if you know it's a raccoon or maybe a buffalo or a bear or something, that's really exciting to me and hiking and being part of that. Those have been some of my experiences. What I've also noticed is through the years, specifically with mountain biking or just going camping, leading various women's groups or inviting women to go on trips and introducing other folks to the outdoors is extremely rewarding to me.

Melissa Weddell:
I really enjoy it. I never considered myself to have a lot of outdoor skills, but through the years, I've realized I just have a comfort that makes it easier for other people to go with me. I really enjoy being dirty is what I've learned. That's always been a little bit of a joke, but the outdoors is just such a great place. I think as we look at the amount of time that we spend on technology, really highlighting the importance of the outdoors and physical activity and getting out there is more imperative now than ever.

Melissa Weddell:
As we kind of wrap up our first introduction of this podcast, I also wanted to share that Joy, Becki and I have been friends for over a decade. Some of us were friends before we came to App State. We've all been here together for probably 11 years now. One of our first trips together was going to Alaska. We spent two weeks in Alaska kind of traveling around. We spent about four days in Denali. We have some really fun stories to share.

Melissa Weddell:
We often made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every morning at the campsite before we left. A little known fact, Joy does not like peanut butter, which we all still can't quite understand, but we've allowed to work through that. But in efficiency, as you will, someone said, "Well, why doesn't one person just make all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for that day so we could kind of divide our duties?" I think what was so funny was that we all made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches differently.

Melissa Weddell:
Some people didn't like the crust. Some people like the peanut butter spread all the way to the end. Some people like their jelly in the middle. Some people like it cut in fours. That was just one of many jokes that we were able to share. Since then, of course, we have gone on numerous outdoor adventures and pick different places. Some close to home. Some as far away as Alaska. I think some of those real benefits for us is not only the physical activity and being outside and adventuring are these lifelong friendships that we make and the things that we share with each other.

Melissa Weddell:
I know, Becki, you've pointed out, sometimes one person might be scared and the other person's not scared. You're like, okay, I feel like I have a little more confidence because I know Joy can do this, and so I'm going to do it too, even though that makes me really, really nervous, or I think all of us have good and bad days. On our bad days, the friends we travel with and go outside with could be having a really good day. We're able to carry each other.

Melissa Weddell:
Those bonds and understanding each other really keep us together for lifelong friendships. With that said in our introductions, really the impetus of this was to share our stories, but then to start a journey of sharing other folk stories. We know that people come to the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the high country, to Boone, mainly to be in the outdoors. There's something very beautiful, very spiritual. The mountains speak to us. We have technology demands like never before.

Melissa Weddell:
We have this real nature deficit disorder. How do we get out in the outdoors? How do we highlight people that are doing it? And in those experience, how are lives being changed on our campus? We are going to have a series of speakers that we are going to interview and share with you stories from our university that we hope inspire you. I just want to thank Joy and Becki and all the folks that are going to make this possible. Again, the HOPE Lab, you can visit us at hopelab.appstate.edu to learn more.

Melissa Weddell:
Again, thank you for joining us. Remember to get outside and keep going outside and life begins at the end of your comfort zone.