I'm Cheyenne Smith, she/her pronouns, and I grew up in Denver, Colorado. I would say my relationship to land is probably one of the most powerful relationships I have. It's the one thing that has helped my mental physical well being more so than anything else. It started as a kid going on hikes by myself; I lived by this bluff. My intrinsic need for exploration as a kid never stopped going into my adulthood, and as I grew older, I did realize that not everyone has access to these things. And I realized that it's such a privilege to be able to go on a hike to know what to do on a hike, to go out and rock climb, to go out and backpack. I looked around, and I'm like, “This has done so much for myself and it's a shame that not everyone gets to experience this. This is such a magical thing that we get to experience: having a relationship with the land. Let's share that with other people.” 

That's what inspired me to get into guiding. As we all know, guiding is a really white male dominated industry, and it was a really intimidating space to get into. And it wasn't until I went on a NOLS Leader of Color trip, where I realized that there are other guides of color. And I didn't know that that was a thing, I never met another guide of color, I've never seen another guide of color. And I went on this NOLS trip and it was all guides of color; it was all participants of color, and that was the first time I've ever been on a trip with just people of color, and being led by people of color. I realized the power of that, and also how we moved within the land versus how I moved within the land with other groups; just how systems of oppression show up in wilderness spaces. It's not really something I thought about. I experienced microaggressions, but I never really deeply understood all the repercussions that we see now. It was the turning point where I realized, “I'm going to guide and this is going to be my work.” I have interactions in the field with strangers that I'm like, “Oh, they just–that was a microaggression,” or “These people don't understand why we're out here,” and this and that. But at the end of the day, it's the one thing I know that I'm supposed to be doing. And that feels really special to me because the relationship with the land is so powerful and watching other people get to build that relationship too. I want to see a world where everyone can go into the outdoors and feel safe, and feel comfortable and feel supported and feel like they belong. Because not everyone feels that way. There's just this culture of: you need to have the right gear, you need to know all the rules, you need to be doing the best, you need to look the best. And you know, not everyone wants to navigate outdoors like that and that's okay. I want to see a world where more people can navigate outdoors like that and it's still considered amazing and magical. I think the only things that are highlighted are people summiting the biggest mountains. But we should highlight people sitting in the park, having a good time. 

Rocks are so cool. I think they're the most under-appreciated thing in nature. I definitely chase rocks, not necessarily rock climbing or being at the top of any type of big rock formation, but just different kinds of rocky terrain, rocky environments. I really like that. It's really fascinating how they're not like this indestructible thing that we all look at them to be and I think that's really fascinating. Just the different parallels of metal work and art and how that is also the same in nature. I love rocks. I think they're really cool. 

Outside of guiding and art, I realize that's how I want to approach teaching other people is, “Oh, we don't know this, I don't know this, you don't know this; let's learn together.” It's really interesting when you start living in alignment with yourself, and you realize all of the amazing synchronicities and opportunities that start falling into place when you begin living in that alignment. I just feel really inspired to continue down that path and continue connecting with people. I'm definitely the type of person where I want to learn and experience and do as much as I can in this life because there is so much to do and see and I really want to live in that. But at the end of the day, I want to be remembered for loving deeply. That is my motto of life. I really care for so many people that I come into contact with and I think connection is one of the greatest things in this world is to learn and connect and experience things with people.