#230: A Transformative Trip: Paige Lackey shares her Project Rustic experience

“At first it was hard because I felt like I was in this snowglobe that had been shaken up. And all of a sudden I had space, and then all the snowflakes were falling around me, and I was like, there’s that thing I ignored for six months, and there’s that thing I don’t want to think about because it stresses me out. But the more I was out there, the more the snowflakes, the glitter, settled and the better I felt. And that, I think, is just a testament to how important it is to make space in this life to think about things, or to process things, to just breathe. Because we don’t get it naturally in our lives. You have to be very intentional about that.” 

Paige Lackey returns to the MRG show to talk about her 5-month-long adventure exploring Michigan’s state forest campgrounds — this solo trip took Paige (and her dog Willow) to more than 75 Michigan Department of Natural Resources locations in both the lower and upper peninsulas between April and September. Project Rustic, as it was named, was an effort to collect information for the state’s Recreation Search database. 

Paige previously was a guest on the show (episode #213) just before leaving on this trip. During that conversation, she talked about coming up with this idea as a Huron Pines AmeriCorps service member serving with the Michigan DNR, and how it all came to fruition. In this most recent episode, Paige is honest about what it truly was like to travel alone with Willow in an RV, the places she got to see and know, the people she met along the way, the highlights and challenges, and how the experience changed her. Her quote of the summer, she shares during her conversation with Heather: “What will be, will be transformative.”