I just feel so connected when I'm out there. I feel alive. I feel the most alive. I

ever feel. I mean, I get goosebumps. Even when you just ask me the question of like,

what is it about the outdoor? It's like everything. Like the fresh air hitting my face. I mean,

I couldn't wait to go home and throw all my roller blades and just blade everywhere.

I would attach a jump rope to my friend's bike and like blade on the back of their bike.

Downhills and overspeed bumps. We were trying to see what was like the most reckless thing we could do.

I just wanted to be outside with the sun hitting me.

Raquel Gomez lights up when she talks about getting outside as a kid. I think a lot of us can relate

to her experience. Many of us didn't grow up without dorsi parents, but we fell in love with nature

by playing in our own backyards, biking, skateboarding, or even rollerblading around her neighborhood.

For Raquel, getting outside has always been a way to be playful and adventurous.

Now as a woman in her 30s, she's taking that approach a step further by helping kids establish

their own relationship with nature. In 2020, Raquel founded Aude Bay Outdoors, a non-profit that

gets girls of color outside. I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas' worth living.

Raquel has a calm sense of leadership about her, but she's definitely still a kid at heart.

She's always been a free spirit and she's done plenty of hiking,

rock climbing, and traveling around the US. In addition to her own adventuring,

Raquel is a certified rock climbing instructor and a youth climbing coach. She also used to work

as a wilderness therapy guide, but building a career in the outdoors wasn't easy for Raquel.

She loved to get outside as a kid, but she didn't see many outdoor athletes that looked like her.

Raquel Gomez, welcome to Wild Ideas' worth living.

Thank you. It's so good to be here. And you're all the way from Phoenix.

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