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 have a story about choice. Having the ability to choose can be something of a privilege.

For some people, the choices they're able to make

are limited by factors like income or family responsibilities

or health.

But what if having limited choices could actually be a good thing?

Today's story comes from a woman named Fran Terouskas.

Fran hosts a podcast called Seize Your Adventure, which is about living the adventure

life style with epilepsy.

For Fran, having an epilepsy diagnosis did not stop her from taking on a through hike by herself.

But it did mean accepting that her options were more limited.

I'll let her take it from here.

I didn't choose to hike the Camino.

Not originally, anyway.

I certainly wasn't one of those people who had it on their bucket list.

I hadn't even heard of the Camino until I started Googling

long hikes in Europe. I had originally set my sights on the Alpine Peaks of Slovenia,

or the Nordic Serenity of Norway.

I wanted to be somewhere harsh, somewhere off-grid.

Quite frankly, I wanted to be far away from people.

But, on assessment, I knew I couldn't do that. Not only was this going to be my first long-distance hike, it was also my first big adventure since I was diagnosed with epilepsy.

I had my first epileptic seizure when I was 22 years old and in the last year of

...