Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions through intimate stories outdoors.

On this episode, we're diving deep into a desire that most of us feel pretty strongly.

The desire to find a partner.

If you are anything like me, when you're younger, you simply assume that you'll meet the right person.

But if you reach your 30s or beyond and you're still single, that certainty can start to waver.

What if something's wrong with you?

What if you never find a soulmate? What if you spend the rest of your life alone? Today's story comes to us from a woman named Mara Kuhn. She's been single most of her life, and she's coming up on 40 years old.

But instead of feeling desperate, she started to wonder whether being single might actually make her happier.

I'll let Mara take it from here.

I sat atop the screen eyeing the summit of Mount Elberg, which loomed above me.

Despite the fact that I'd already climbed nearly 4,000 feet, I had no desire to continue the last

200 feet to the top. I was exhausted and couldn't seem to catch my breath in the thin mountain air.

I was sitting at 14,200 feet and I'm a flat lander. That was already an accomplishment.

It's okay to quit, I told myself. It was getting late and I wondered if I wasn't going to make the

summit before I needed to begin my hike back to the tree line. In the Rockies, afternoon thunderstorms tend to be really violent, so you don't want to be high up on exposed ridge lines.

You have met your goal of hiking to 14,000 feet. No one said you had to summit. It's okay to quit.

I was ready to call it. I wasn't going to make the summit.

And I was more than fine with that.

Really, I did not want to keep going.

I thought of the advice I'd once given when someone asked me,

when is it okay to bail on a hike?

When it's no longer fun and or safe, I answered.

...