“First, you have to have vision.”

This is a lyric Major Lazor reiterates in a song I am listening to while I”m writing this.

This is my dream journal, a place where I glue magazine cut outs of words like “ski with your dog” and photos of a giant Sasquatch doing backflips in the backcountry. It may seem childish, but after 23 years of school and no certain idea of a career choice, I believe this journal is a good start to figuring out what exactly is it I want to do with my life.

I recently graduated with an double degree in Environmental Studies and International Relations, something I thought would satisfy my altruistic spirit and point me in a direction where I could,  ya know… save the planet. But, alas …

The direction I have chosen is skiing epic pow lines, biking steep ridges, slinging PBRs at a local ski bar, and volunteering at non-profits.  I don’t have a car, laptop, fancy equipment, or a quiver of shoes most girls my age tend to have these days.

In fact, I think if I spent more time working and less time volunteering, I could afford some of these things.

My possessions involve some hand me down gear, lots of smiles, and a vigorous passion to be outdoors at all times possible!  This intrinsic bag of goodies of mine may come with awesome friends and endless adventures… however it does not pay my bills.

This past season, I have had to start facing reality without giving into societies pressures of finding a ‘real job’.  What is a real job? Something with set hours, a stable paycheck, job title, vacation time, health insurance? Okay… you’re probably thinking, yes Tori, this is a ‘real job’! Certainly all these qualifications focus on the details of a job, but what about how you ‘feel’ about a job.  Does this job fulfill your dreams, stimulate, challenge, reward, and most of all is it enjoyable!?

I stand strong behind my expectations of finding a job that allows me to live out my dreams, even if it involves long winters of oatmeal and peanut butter bombs.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “We find it difficult to choose our direction, because it does not exist exactly in our idea”.

I think I read on average 30 quotes a day by great minds like Thoreau, Goethe, and Einstein to remind me to not give up on this ‘vision’.  My vision: to continue to explore, shred, twirl and most of all; bring all these incredible passions I have fortunately gotten to experience in my lifetime, to others!

Yes, my vision starts with what I love most to do, and that’s helping others. If my two college degrees taught me anything, it’s that the world’s problems are plentiful and discouraging, yet even the smallest light can have an immense effect.  So why not fight those problems by spreading beauty.  Spreading Stoke.

Spreadstoke, I think this will be my vision, quest, hell, why not job?!  A job that will allow me to focus my energy and passion in a way I can create a platform for others to share their adventures.   Everyone has the right to express their inspiring stories, what better than to do it within a community using mixed media.

It will require long hours of work, an incredible team, and LOTS of skiing (of course).  But if done right and most of all with a big heart…I believe Spread Stoke will be just another catalyst for a movement that can’t be avoided with this generation… doing what you love must come first.