Teale LaRosa

Badass, mostly.

I don’t know why I feel compelled to reach out for consideration for your podcast, but I feel like you’re doing something important, and I like to be a part of important things.

Raised in a small town (you know the one, Kevin!), sometimes you’re required to live your life in a certain way. Everyone knows you, everyone has their own expectations of you, everyone is in your business. After graduating high school and college, my foolish ass came back to the hometown and ended up working at the local mental health center. For over a decade, I had a job that put me in the community, crossing paths with many people who had known me forever. Because of my job, I also felt like I had to be a certain person because I was working in the public eye and was pretty well known. I was living the life of a person that wasn’t really ME. I was acting in ways, responding in ways, performing in ways that would please everyone else. In this span of time, I also lost both of my parents, so the grief/loss associated with that wore down on me as well. I dreamed of doing something different with my life, but had no idea what it would be. I just felt stuck, and that I was going through the motions every day, but not really happy.

Long story short, in 2020 my husband and I sold our house, bought an RV, and hit the road to travel, and eventually relocated to Oregon. For 2 years I lived in my RV and worked at an ocean-front camp ground, and now I am in charge of a whole-ass camp (think Monticello 4H camp at Allerton). Was I terrified? Yes. Was I doubting whether I deserved this freedom and happiness? Every day. But I finally feel like the version of myself I always was meant to be.