Introducing Emily Sukiennik

Here is my ambassador profile on Oakley's Perform Beautifully Collective! :-D STOKED!!
Introducing Emily Sukiennik

Oakley Women's Retreat : Napa Valley, CA

I've had a wonderful beginning to my July! I recently won an ambassadorship with Oakley through their Perform Beautifully Contest and I was invited to attend their annual Women's Retreat in Napa Valley, California. I got to meet all of the new ambassadors for 2012 that also won the competition, some 2011 ambassadors and so many other inspirational women involved with the company. I learned a lot more about the brand, their products and what they stand for. I am so excited to be involved with a company that supports SO many different walks of life and ways of staying active. There are so many amazing women in the world and Oakley is doing a great job at representing them.

The retreat was UNREAL. I didn't really know what to expect before I got there, but it was out of this  world. Held at a resort right in the heart of Napa Valley, we each had our own suite. We were SHOWERED with Oakley gear, brand new Asics running shoes, a new Garmin wrist watch with GPS capabilities, a package from Fitness Magazine, and lots of other odds and ends. We ran a 5K, biked through Napa while stopping at 3 separate wineries for tasting, hiked, ate tons of great food, got to know each other and made some amazing new connections. I never really thought I'd be so lucky, but it looks like I've found an extremely supportive community of women!


Below is a video of the weekend that Oakley put together and some pics as well! All pics are by Shawn Parkin

           

Welcome to Napa!

The 5K at Trefethen Family Vineyards

Some of us on our TREK bikes before the bike ride/wine tour :)

A whole bunch of Oakley Women overtaking Napa!

Me and two of my fellow ambassadors, Page Spicer Williams and Christine Donaldson. Check out their sites!

On the hike

Beautiful ambassador ladies!

The 2012 Oakley Women Ambassadors
Page Spicer Williams, Fitz Koehler, Charlotte Neitzel, Natalia Maldonado, Carly Swanson, Maria Romaine, AJ Govoni, Me, Christine Donaldson and Cari Shoemate

I think I fell in love with road biking on this trip

New 2012 Oakley Women's Ambassadors

Here are the new 2012 Oakley Women Ambassadors! I'm so excited to be a part of the team and am inspired by you all. Gonna be a great year!
New 2012 Oakley Women's Ambassadors

Homeless by Choice

So yes, I am homeless by choice. I never imagined as a child that I would someday wish to be homeless, but here I am. There are many reasons for my choice and I've been getting a lot of questions lately about WHY I wouldn't want to just rent a place in Moab? Well....I've realized that I am very prone to getting into bad  "routines",  meaning that I tend to get lazy and stay inside a lot of the time when I have a comfortable place to live. Sounds strange for someone as outdoorsy as me, but sometimes I just get stuck inside and I don't really like that about myself. To remedy this tendency I've decided to live outside for a while and to be honest, it's extremely fun! I spend the day either working or playing outside in some manner....and as night falls I drive into the desert to find a place to rest my head. It's so beautiful being in the great wide open under the stars. I've never had so much time to ponder the cosmos, meditate, relax, breathe.....and each morning I get to witness the sunrise, something I've rarely witnessed in my lifetime.

I've come to the conclusion that no material item will ever matter as much as how I feel and living outside has made me feel ALIVE. Yes, it can be scary....but the more you do anything the more comfortable you become with it. I'm starting to feel comfortable without a home and a lot more comfortable with myself as a whole. Sometimes a drastic change is necessary in order to progress, and it's about time I made some major changes in my life.

Stay tuned for more revelations and self discovery. Thanks for following!!

Embarking on my own journey

I feel like I am finally ready to embark on my own personal journey. For the longest time I feel like I have been waiting for the right moment to take off, explore and do things for ME. If you follow me, it may seem like I have been doing just that; but, I haven't truly let go of the things that hold me back. Often times I feel myself tied down by finances, friends, a boyfriend, or worst of all: fear. Three years ago, I remember having this dream as I sat at my job in California: I imagined myself packing up my things into my car and taking off all alone to camp/live out of my car and experience the world through my own eyes. There's something about camping and living outside that brings me back to the basics of what life is really all about. For so long I've been living inside, spending too much time on the computer and dreaming about what it would be like to take off on my own. Back then I was terrified just thinking about doing something like this all alone! Today, I am finally at a point where I feel like I'm truly ready to do it. I want to learn how to live life only for myself and specifically, not depending on anyone else for my happiness. Being 25, almost 26, I feel like it's finally time to step up and learn what it means to truly live. This is really exciting for me and I'm going to be writing a lot along the way. My first stop is going to be Moab where I will be working as a waitress/bartender and camping/living out of my car to save money, climb, highline adventure as much as possible. I hope to save up enough money to do some traveling amongst other things. Here is a quote from one of my favorite books of all time, "Eay, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, that sums up how I feel about what I'm about to do. 

“I've come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call "The Physics of The Quest"- a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: 

If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared - most of all -to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself....then truth will not be withheld from you." Or so I've come to believe.”  ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love