2022: The Year For Possibility & Spaghetti

Katie Boué is a Cuban-American writer and outdoor advocate who lives in Salt Lake City. She and her adopted mutt Spaghetti love adventuring together in the desert. Katie is the founder of the Outdoor Advocacy Project, a community education initiative seeking to inspire and empower the next generation of outdoor advocates. 

Spaghetti and I have known each other for three and a half years—the best of my life. When we change, we change together. When we become, we become together. We’ve been doing a lot of both lately. 

My dog Spaghetti was adopted into a season of adventure, spent traipsing around Utah and the mountain west in vans, backpacks, and bike baskets. We hiked, we camped, we paddled, we rapelled, we played until the entire planet came to a standstill in 2020—and then, like everyone else, we stood still. 

We stood so still that once it became time to move again, we found ourselves unsure how to proceed. Everything that once was, wasn’t anymore. For a human, it was hard to comprehend how to move forward. For Spaghetti, it was simply a matter of putting one paw in front of the other. Our leash’s role reversed, safely tethered together, Spaghetti started tugging me through the world again. 

The last year has been the slow process of reemergence, and Spaghetti has guided me through as we relearned the simplest things: navigating a crowded trailhead parking lot or carving a path through the hectic thrill of the farmers market. We took turns leading each other through the new-old world around us. As we look towards 2022, we’re ready for a new year, a new process to pilot our journey. 

Ready for a Season of Thriving

This upcoming season, we’ve shifted from survival mode, we’ve unpacked the baggage of the last (nearly) two years, we’ve started building habits for a better future—we’re ready for the season of thriving. 

1) Making Our Daily Walk Habit Stick

We hope our habit of a walk every day—rain, shine, or snow!—sticks around in 2022. It’s part of my personal survive-then-thrive plan: every day I have to walk outside, practice Spanish, and move my body.

Spaghetti loves our daily walks. We use them to connect with nature and do some light training to reinforce our communication skills. Perhaps in this new year, our walks will introduce us to new neighbors and opportunities to build community. 

2) Cultivating Lessons as Farmers

We hope 2022 brings us a bountiful harvest. Spaghetti has become quite the farmer. She picks her own raspberries, steals cherry tomatoes, and loves nothing more than spending dawn to dusk helping me in the garden.

In the upcoming growing season, we hope to cultivate the lessons we’ve learned as wannabe farmers and produce enough to open our own market stand. Perhaps a pick-your-own raspberries day on our property—or let Spaghetti pick ‘em (and eat ‘em) for you! 

3) Camp & Travel More – Closer to Home

We hope to camp more in 2022. In 2019, we tried to be everywhere. In 2020, we had nowhere to go. In 2021, we were shaking the dust off our traveling bones. In 2022, we’re getting a new adventure rig and combining the spirit of the last few years to travel more—to places closer to home.

We’ve learned you don’t have to travel far to find adventure, and now we yearn for as many experiences as we can soak in within a shorter drive from home. 

4) Reprioritize Our Time & Energy

Above all else, we hope to continue to reprioritize and reinvest our time and energy in 2022.* A lesson we’ve all learned through the last season of life is that our earthly lives are a precious measurement of time, and we must use what time we do have wisely. 

*To be fair, Spaghetti has always been a master of investing your time and energy right. She knows what matters in life, and she doesn’t do anything else with her time. It’s her humans that have room for improvement in this zone. 

Putting Lessons Learned Into Practice

After a few too many seasons of being seen or hiding from sight, Spaghetti and I are looking forward to a 2022 spent seeing for ourselves. Through all the changes of the last few seasons, I yet identify with the static idea of having “become” anything, but I see the dynamic changes of “becoming” all around me.

I’m hopeful for us all to return to ourselves, to take our lessons learned, and to put them into practice as we begin a season of light again. I’m elated for the opportunities ahead—and even excited to face the challenges.

Spaghetti's 2022 Wish: Daily Pumpkin Scoops

As for Spaghetti, as long as there’s a bowl of kibble with a scoop of pumpkin in it at the end of the day, she’s in for whatever 2022 brings her way.

Loved hearing about Katie & Spaghetti's adventures? Follow their Instagram to keep those inspirational vibes going!