As I explained in my first post, Colby College – where I attend school – has a January term in which we can either stay at school and take a class, go abroad, or pursue an internship. My three best friends at school and I are spread far and wide for the month of January; Jenny is on a farm in Belize, Julia is taking a cooking class in Catania, Italy, Susan is in Ecuador studying Spanish with a host family, and I am working with SheJumps in Utah. Because we can’t stay in touch by text or phone, we keep a message thread on Facebook. Needless to say, it should be published – our crudely written adventures are truly a work of art.

But no shorthand, quickly-typed message of mine has been as heartfelt as the one I posted after our wine and wax event last Monday, January 16th.

As “the intern” I will honestly confess I had no idea what to expect. Although I am a self-proclaimed extrovert, I’ll say that I was a little nervous that I was about to be a host (of sorts) to a party in which I knew NO ONE.

…But I was so impressed.

There were women there who had heard about the event that just showed up, without knowing anyone. To talk to women who enjoy similar activities, to introduce themselves, to share stories, and to make lasting friends in the area.

It takes major confidence to show up to a party by yourself where you know no one.  Yet, about an hour into the event, I realized that I shouldn’t have been surprised by the amount of people that represented this statistic. Because that’s what SheJumps is about. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know anyone. Everyone at the meet and greet was connected by a common thread: a love of skiing and an appreciation and passion for what SheJumps stands for.

I loved mingling with everyone and even got to see many people again at our party at OR on Friday (writeup and pictures to come!) Big thanks to Annie Studer for giving an awesome lesson on tuning skis… and to Hannah for letting us play with her pogo sticks.

After everyone had left, my first instinct was to write my friends about it - not because I am addicted to being on Facebook (only sometimes), but because I am so inclined to share this experience I am having here in Utah with loved ones back home. Happiness becomes that much better when shared.

“today was sick... skied in the afternoon, and then at night we had a meet and greet with a bunch of utah shejumps women!! they were ALL so cool. like seriously so cool. they are totally people I, and you guys too, would want to be friends with. seriously fun conversation and just a really good time. so yeah, this has all been so cool guys. im really starting to feel at home here especially after meeting everyone tonight. On the real though, there were some people here tonight that literally didnt know ANYONE and just came to meet people. and honestly that takes a hell of a lot of confidence but it was so fun to talk to them and to get to know them, and everyone here has the shejumps common thread so its sort of an automatic friendship. Really getting used to everything here and loving every minute of it. this is such an amazing experience and honestly, feeling so lucky. Hope you guys are loving life!”