These moments have contributed to teaching me a sense of self and empathy for the natural environment. And, I remember pausing to appreciate the density of the forests that offered homes for the wildlife surrounding my home. I remember the treetops that I scrambled up just to look out across the fields. I remember sitting on the ledge of my back deck staring out at the heat lightning that spread across the evening sky, and the sunsets that left the vastness of the horizon a million shades of orange, pink and purple. I remember laying in the horse pasture next to my house, surrounded by blooming dandelions staring up at the big blue sky as the clouds moved slowly overhead. I have vivid memories from when I was very young around age five or six. I day-dreamed my way through it until recess, P.E., or the end of the day at which point I would go back outside to play with my friends or to be alone and wrapped in a world that made me feel so small. School wasn’t really my thing, but I did it anyway. I spent from sun-up to sun-down playing in the woods, on the farm, and in the cornfields that surrounded my home in central New York. Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Caloia.Īmanda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.ĮverWild wouldn’t have been in my future had it not been for my free-range childhood.

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