Episode 215: Fluidity in Recovery – Antoinette Lee Toscano

Interview with Antoinette Lee Toscano

A lifechanging rappelling accident lead Antoinette Lee Toscano to choose to live the life of outdoor adventure she’d always dreamed of. And since then, she’s dedicated herself to helping others make it easier to shape their lives for the better, too.

Antoinette Lee Toscano is an outdoor industry consultant, writer, philanthropist, and motivational health and wellness speaker. In the Women & Water book, she shares how paddlesports have played a role in her ongoing healing for a Traumatic Brain Injury, spine injury, and PTSD.

This is part of a series of interviews with some incredible humans who are featured in Women and Water – a new book from the team behind She Explores. We’re taking the conversation off the page and into their relationship with water today. You’ll hear from swimmers, surfers, paddlers, fishers, and more. 

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Featured in this episode: Antoinette Lee Toscano

Hosted & Produced by Gale Straub

A production of Ravel Media

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Resources

• Antoinette Lee Toscano
  • Instagram: @antoinetteleetoscano
  • Website: AntoinetteToscano.com
  • Blog: New Normal Big Life 
• Our new book, Women and Water
• Mentioned in conversation:
  • The American Adventure Sports Club
  • AdventureTV
  • Antoinette’s Articles on Culturs Mag
  • Diversify Whitewater 
• Rate this podcast

• Ravel Media

Music is licensed through podcastmusic.com unless otherwise noted.

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Antoinette Lee Toscano

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TRANSCRIPT

Note: This transcript was lightly edited and created using a transcription service. As such it may contain spelling errors.

Gale Straub – Narration: I’m Gale Straub and you’re listening to She Explores.

Gale Straub – Narration: This is Antoinette Lee Toscano. Like Olivia, who we heard from last episode, Antoinette wears a lot of different hats. She’s an outdoor industry consultant, writer, philanthropist, and motivational health and wellness speaker. And as you’ll hear, Antoinette started pursuing her lifelong love of the outdoors as part of her ongoing recovery for a traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, and PTSD.

Antoinette is also a contributor to Women and Water, the new book from the team behind She Explores. If you’re curious to learn more, you can head to our website She-Explores.com, or you can listen to one of the recent interviews right here on our feed. 

We cover a lot in our conversation. I was most drawn in by Antoinette’s optimism and dedication to building a life that she wants to lead. She’s chosen adventure – whether whitewater rafting, ice fishing, or camping – and she’s put a lot of effort into helping others make it easier to shape their lives for the better. 

Antoinette Lee Toscano: I am a, um, ambivert. So I am naturally introverted and naturally extroverted. So if you scroll through my, uh, social media feed, it looks like I’m everywhere meeting all the people, and I just wanna hug everyone, and be friends with everyone. And that really is who I am, but for very short periods of time.

And then my natural introvert just kind of wants to go read a book and sit quietly somewhere outside or, or go for a hike. I another way that,

Gale Straub: that

Antoinette Lee Toscano: another way that I I identify is someone with a hidden disability. Um, I had a traumatic brain injury and a spinal cord injury. And so, um, I am neuro divergent. My brain doesn’t process information like other people.

And because you can’t see a difference, it’s often, um, misunderstood. Why? might behave in a way that you think is unexpected or can’t follow your conversation if you speak too quickly. , which some people do. So yeah,

Gale Straub: Yeah, I think that’s really helpful to, to share at the start of a conversation too. Um, and it’s something that you mentioned, uh, in, in your profile in the Women in Water book. Um, and so I’m, I’m curious if, if you could share, you know, what it was like, uh, Discovering water sports, you know, as you were healing.

And, you know, I guess it’s a lifelong healing process, uh, when it comes to a traumatic brain injury and, uh, the spinal cord injury that you had. So, um, just love to hear a little bit about, about that journey for you.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Yeah. So after, uh, the accident, uh, it was a repelling accident where I, um, injured my brain and my spinal cord. I, I broke my back and, um, you know, there are the, this initial recovery, but then later you can have complications. because of the way in which you were treated. Um, so for example, I was overmedicated.

They prescribed way too many medications that had adverse re effects. And so, um, I not only have the injury that I have to manage, but other persistent health challenges that I have to manage because of the complications to to recovery. So when I came to paddle sports, it was actually on the recommendation.

My recreational therapist and occupational therapists, they prescribed archery and whitewater kayaking, archery for things like focus reading conversations, watching a movie and whitewater for socialization. I had become very a agoraphobic. I couldn’t leave my home for 18 months, so the first time I got into a little plastic boat at.

A roll session in a heated pool in North Carolina. I was, um, using a walker, a full-time caregiver and a service dog, and I really thought, I can’t do this. , even my service dog looked at me as if she was saying with her eyes, we’re not doing this, Chica, this is not happening today, , because we were watching people roll their boats and, and I was having second thoughts, so,

Gale Straub: Hmm. Oh, you know what? I wanna go quick just briefly back to the start of the conversation and say that if at any point you need me to repeat a question or slow down or anything like that due to, um, the way that you process information, please just let me know. I, I should have said that right away, but I was thinking that, and I just wanted to extend that invitation to you.

I’m actually someone. . Yeah, I’m, I’m, I know we have different circumstances, but I’m also someone that, uh, sometimes in my day job, I’ll be talking to an entrepreneur or someone who just, uh, part of their job is to. Share information really quickly, and I feel like I have to ratchet up, you know, and meet their energy and it’s not that easy.

So , I think my, my normal cadence and way of absorbing information is, uh, often a little bit slower too. So I think we’re meeting in a good

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Yes, we are doing great here. This conversation. Speed is, is absolutely great.

[Music break]

Gale Straub: Hmm. And so, so what was it like that, you know, after you kind of got through that initial trepidation of attending that kayaking class for the first time, when did it start to, to kind of click for you as something that you wanted to pursue for. For yourself rather than something that you were kind of prescribed to do.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Well, when I got in the boat the very first time I. sort of motivated to get in the boat by someone who said, I can tell I what you’re thinking. You’re thinking you can’t do this. But a blind guy named Eric Weir just paddled all 277 miles of the Grand Canyon, so you can do this now, get in the boat. And that was kind of like, you know, I just jumped in the boat and, and I was hooked immediately because when I was in the boat, I was free of my.

And so, um, at that point I didn’t know if I would be using a walker for the rest of my life or not being able to live independently or if I needed my service dog for the rest of my life. So, getting in the boat and feeling free. . It was just incredible because I felt free of the back pain and the brain processing challenges and all of those things that made me feel, um, less than other people.

And so I was hooked immediately. I knew this is something I wanted to do and today I am actually friends and on the board of Eric Weiner’s Foundation,

Gale Straub: What foundation is that?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: No Barriers.

Gale Straub: Mm

Antoinette Lee Toscano: they help people with persistent life challenges and disabilities know that what’s within them is stronger than what’s in their way. And, uh, there’s a whole lifestyle to it. And, um, . I didn’t learn about that lifestyle, but in creating my new normal after injury, I already was living some principles of this lifestyle.

And one of the, the things that really helped me in creating my new normal was adopting a, a complete adventure sports lifestyle. So I went from. not leaving my house for 18 months, then getting into a boat for the first time to within a few weeks after that, reinventing myself as the adventure sportswoman I always wanted to be.

But because of, um, I guess constraints by society, family, my gender, my ethnicity, um, I’m, And multicultural, uh, I’m probably one of the first. Or few Black Irish, Afro-Latina , indigenous AK people that you might meet. And in my family, um, I’m adopted, but I was raised by a black family in a black family. and they were very classy, cosmopolitan people.

Um, you know, I, my sisters and I, I’m the youngest of five children and my three sisters and I all had to go to Debutant school to learn how to be a lady for an entire year of our lives,

Gale Straub: Wow,

Antoinette Lee Toscano: yeah, they were pretty serious about, you cannot be an outdoors person. You can’t be outside and sweaty and. , you know, your skin is dark.

You look like a field hand. My mother would tell me, and we worked really hard to not be on a farm because we were raised on farms and now all you want to do is be down south on the farm and that’s just not acceptable. So, um, My sisters also thought that I was an embarrassment cuz I, I like to run everywhere.

I was a little kid with a backpack and I ran everywhere. And at five years old I said I was training for the Army. That’s why I like to run so much but that just kind of wasn’t allowed in my family. Although they sent us to camp to learn how to swim and, and you know, two weeks of camp was all the recreation that young ladies should have in, in the eyes of my, my.

Gale Straub: Hmm. Oh, that must have must have been difficult, you know, to kind of be. Dreaming of things and not feeling like you could pursue them. Um, and then it was, you were in your forties when you ended up, uh, kind of taking on this, this role as an adventurer.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: That’s right. Uh, my father would let me steal little moments like the house. There was no house behind our home. So I would climb over the fence in my backyard and he’d let, he’d fight with my mother about it to let me camp outside, um, for a few days or for a weekend, you know, with my dog, Sean. And, um, I thought, man, that’s the life.

And when I went to Virginia to be on the farm where my mom grew up, I thought, oh, wow. Why can’t we live here? I, he absolutely hated the city. I never felt at home. And that’s probably why I live, um, across the street from a ranch in Colorado,

Gale Straub: And I, I know we won’t go too, too far into your backstory, but you did end up joining the military, right?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: I did, I joined the Army, uh, and I spent 11 years in the army as a a four-time a dental hygienist, and then later an expert field medic. And then I went into managing dental clinics for the army.

Gale Straub: Mm-hmm.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: after the Army, I completely left the medical field and eventually became a chief Executive officer in IT company and then realized the corporate world just isn’t for me because I kept hearing things on my evaluation like, you’re too nice to be in the C-suite.

And I thought, well, if I can’t be a good human being to do this job, I don’t want to do this job. So I’m a full-time writer now in public.

Gale Straub: Wow. Wow. Amazing. I feel like you’ve lived multiple lives within your, your life so far. Uh, so when you were, uh, you said within a few weeks of, of being in that pool, trying kayaking for the first time, you kind of went full, full into pursuing outdoor adventure. Um, what, what did those steps look like for you at that time?

Um, to kind of take it outside?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Well, I asked myself what makes me happy? Not what society wants me to do, to make all the people around me happy. What family and friends, my religious community or anyone else might think happiness should look like for a person with my, uh, you know, class, education, all the things, gender, et cetera.

I thought if I never had to consider what anyone else thought about me in this. , what would I do? Who would I be? What are the things in life that make me the most happy? And I use those things to create my new framework, my new normal. And I realize that an outdoor lifestyle, gardening, uh, growing as much of my own food as I can.

harvesting some of the meat that I eat. Through, uh, hunting and fishing sort of living closer to the land, closer to how my ancestors lived, was what felt right my entire life, and I never had the opportunity to do that. So I thought when I. Ditch this walker and can live independently.

This is the life that I’m going to live, but I’m gonna start living it from today right here in my, my sick bed still, you know, I was still very sick at the time. And I created the new normal. And I envision a life. And that life that I live is exactly the, the life that I envision ex, exactly the life I live today, including what I can see out of my window was what I envisioned in my head. And so lots of things had to come together to make that happen. And it wasn’t wishful thinking, rather it was setting an intention, envisioning. What it will be, and then beginning from day one, living as if it had already happened. So I wasn’t a writer at that time, and I said, today, I’m a ghost writer.

I created a profile. And got my first ghost writing contract the day after I created a pro, not even a full day after I created my, my freelance writer profile, but I, from day one, set that intention that I am a ghost writer. Next step is I am an adventure sports person. I am a hunter. I fish, I whitewater kayak, I camp, I do all of the things, hiking, climbing, , ice fishing. I didn’t even have any of the gear yet, but I identified if people asked me, so what do you do? One of the things I said is I’m an all around adventure sports woman, and today I am an all around adventure sports woman.

Gale Straub: Wow. So a lot, a lot of it was, was kind of like you said, setting that intention for yourself. I guess removing. It. I mean, it must be difficult to remove fear around that. Right? You know, like the gap between who you were and who you wanted to be.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Well, because of the severe complications that I was undergoing as a result of my injuries, I almost died. And so when, one night when I went to sleep, I didn’t think I was gonna wake up the next morning. I could feel death script. I could taste it. I could smell it. My body smelled as if it was rotting. And having known the smell of death before I, that was a very clear image that I smell the smell of, of death, and I don’t think I have long for this world.

And so I was. Grateful to the universe for the life I had the opportunity to live so far, I think, um, especially as a black woman in a post-colonial world, I had a very privileged life and by all accounts, um, although if you read my memoir, you might not think it was a happy life, but on balance, it was a happy life and I feel fortunate.

but when you realize that you are dying and then you get one more day, I was not willing to allow an ounce of that time to go to waste after that because I, I realized how fragile life is. I, I really always knew how fragile life was. , but it really came, uh, I really came to terms with it when I felt that I was going to die before doctors figured out what was wrong with me and how to treat it.

And I, by the way, figured out my own treatment and it worked. 

Gale Straub: Wow. Yeah, I mean, I feel like, um, n not many people get that level of clarity. You know? It’s, you don’t wanna get to that point to get that level of clarity, but, for you as a writer and a speaker, you’re sharing that clarity with other people. and help other people kind of define what they want their lives to look like or what they want their new normal to look like.

Um, would you be able to talk a little bit about that, like how you’re kind of sharing this gift with other people?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Sure. I like to say that if I were brave enough, I would’ve lived my life from the moment that I left my parents home. Graduated from high school at 17 gone off to college and then the army. I would’ve at that point, if I were brave, I would’ve created my new normal at that point.

But I could go against my parents and my community and the rest of my family a little bit, but too much was a lot to lose. But then when I realized that you’re not really losing anything, I’m an independent adult. No one takes care of me. I could just be my own person.

But you feel sort of the handcuffs of other people’s criticism and judgment and, and my community is very vocal. 

 I had to go against all of that to live my truth, to be my authentic self. And I also had to fight against black people. Don’t do that. You’re not white. Don’t try to act like a white girl. You’re never gonna be white. And I wasn’t trying to act white. I was trying to be the person I felt inside.

I just wanted. , like be outdoors and live this adventurous lifestyle. And for a lot of people of color that felt like not the norm And, and I felt very rejected. I felt very rejected really by my, most of the people that I know until about.

I’d say 2018. When I moved to Colorado, then people said, oh, , you live in Colorado. Everybody’s outdoorsy, so I can understand. But before that, it was not acceptable,

Gale Straub: hmm.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: in my community.

Gale Straub: Yeah. Yeah. But, but a lot of the work that you’ve done since, um, has been in, in diversifying the communities that you are a part of. 

Antoinette Lee Toscano: I don’t want any formally marginalized person or any person really to feel as though they can’t. , fully enjoy all that nature has to offer. Whether it’s a barrier of community or, or a social barrier. A gender barrier. A gender identity barrier. A cost barrier. There are so many barriers, to outdoor recreation for a lot of people.

Low income families, people with disability, women, the LGBTQ plus community. Even men who are white and don’t have a lot of money, don’t have access to the outdoors or outdoor recreation. So anyone who feels that there are just too many barriers for them to exercise their natural right to nature, I wanted to help remove those barriers.

So I co-founded Diversify Whitewater, and I, created the American Adventure Sports Club to. Give a distinction from clubs in say, Chilean, Patagonia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, mainland China, on all of those places. If you wanted to get outside an adventure and recreate, there are low costs and no costs.

Public-private, or fully, uh, state sponsored programs that you can use. But in the United States, we don’t have any of those until I created the American Adventure Sports Club, powered by the National 5 0 1 Vibe, tribe adventures. So at no cost, youth and adults can use our equipment. Go on trips with us, go to camp with us.

Have a community where they can recreate And that just feels really good to give anyone who felt like they were priced out of outdoor recreation because the majority of us who do recreate, not me cuz I’m a writer, , but uh, the majority of people who recreate according to the outdoor industry, earns a hundred thousand dollars a.

in their household. So a lot of people are priced out of outdoor recreation, but there are great organizations who have partnered with me and my philanthropic work, um, and through my company, um, at Venture TV and my blog, uh, new normal Big Life blog on antoinette toscano.com. And so I write. outdoor and happiness related topics and how to create your new normal.

I also write about diversity in the outdoors and, um, on my channel, I show people how to get started. So I’m not gonna teach you how to be a, uh, world class ice. angler or a world class, uh, paddler because I’m still a class two plus three minus whitewater kayaker myself. And, uh, but I will show you the basics of how to get started so that everyone who goes to my channel and my channel is on the exo tv.me platform, but it’s also on Heen Smart TVs.

And so, um, it was first rolled out on the Smart TVs in South Africa, I believe. And so I get a lot of people from South Africa who said, you’re teaching me how to do this sport and I love it, and. You know, I walk because I don’t have a car, but now I’m recreating, uh, and adventuring. And so those are the kinds of, um, instant messages.

I love getting.

Gale Straub: Hmm. And so what do you, feel like really drives you to to be, um, continuing this work in so many different, uh, you have so many different touchpoints in the ways that you are diversifying the outdoors in the ways that you’re show, showing people what’s possible for them. Um, do you think that motivation is, is you as a, as a kid wanting to do these things?

Like what,

Antoinette Lee Toscano: It absolutely is. It’s absolutely that five year old who just loved people and loved life I am naturally happy. It is really difficult for me to get angry or stay angry or sad because I’m naturally happy, a optimistic and happy person. and it was just that five year old kid who was just like, I’m going outside and I’m gonna run and climb and hike and do all those things.

And to have society say, no, you can’t, you can’t because you’re black and you can’t because you are, a girl 

Transition music

Gale Straub: And so today, what does, um, Paddling and, and water sports. Like what, what do they look like in your every day? Like how, how are you incorporating them into your life?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Well, you know, water is really important to me year round. So I am gonna get off this conversation and go cross country ski in this fresh pal that we just got, that I’ve been looking at all day. And then, um, you know, I’ll probably do some ice fishing in a day or two and I’m going to hit up a pool session pretty soon.

And then, Uh, when spring comes, I will be out there paddling all the lakes and rivers and fishing and taking all the people in my philanthropic work out with me and just creating a larger community of diverse people, uh, in the outdoors. And what I mean, say diverse, I mean unified, diverse. I don’t mean only people of color.

I don’t just recreate with people of color, or just people with disabilities or just veterans or just women. . I do sometimes, uh, participate in affinity groups, but I love unified communities where it’s just human beings who are just stoked about the same thing, and we’re all just out on the water doing the things together, even if we have different skill levels. And almost everyone I paddle. Paddles at a higher skill level, but they’re so generous with their time.

They’re willing to come paddle with me, um, at a lower level just because they enjoy being on the water, and that’s so beautiful. I love that.

Gale Straub: Yeah, definitely. And, and earlier you said that you were a class two plus a class three minus, um, kayaker. And you know, just for anyone who doesn’t know what that means, like, would you be able to explain what, what that, what that entails?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: So, uh, any paddle sport, I, I paddle board, I kayak fish, I whitewater kayak, I raft, I do all of the things. So there, when you’re on moving water, there are classifications of rapids class one through five. I I am never even rafting a class five. I’m just gonna put that out there in the universe cuz that’s not happening

But um, So at my class level, I can safely boat at, meaning I have all of the skills necessary. Like, um, I don’t have a solid roll. If I had a solid combat roll. So when your boat rolls upside down, you roll yourself back up. And my role is not solid. It’s not a hundred percent reliable. I c should safely stay at a lower uh, paddling level until I have a solid role, and then I would need to master other skills and then I could move to the next class level.

Gale Straub: Mm mm That’s good to to

Antoinette Lee Toscano: first.

Gale Straub: Yes, , exactly. Uh, so I mean you mentioned all these different activities that you do and, and all the people that you’ve met through the activities. If, uh, someone was wanting to get started, uh, what are some of your recommendations for entry points? To be it, uh, whitewater kayaking or Santa paddle boarding.

Um, and then also let’s just add ice fishing cuz it’s a very unique . It’s a very unique activity.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: I’m so glad you asked because I just wrote an article. I’m a freelance writer at Paddling Magazine and Culture’s Global Multicultural Magazine for cultures that C U L T U R S magazine. . I wrote an article on how to get started ice fishing, the basics, and on adventure tv, on the xo tv.me channel. I have an ice fishing basics video, the necessary gear, how to get.

Started how to jig, how to, uh, you’ll see me cut a hole in the ice. You’ll see me testing the ice to make sure that it’s safe to walk out on four inches or more for, for walking out on, um, thicker if you’re gonna drive a vehicle out on it. But I, uh, write about those things and create video content around these various topics, how to get started.

For that reason, I also, uh, collaborated with, I’m sure if, if anyone paddle is a paddle border or a kayaker, you probably know Rita Boyk of Can River Supp. Rita dot sends on Instagram. She’s one of my favorite humans. And we collaborated on the, what’s up? That’s u standup paddle boarding series on xo tv, uh, adventure TV on xo tv.me.

And we take people, well, Rita does really, and her team takes people from making choices about which gear to buy to getting, uh, just sort of the basics. Paddle boarding and getting up on your board and conditioning your body for paddle boarding. I also have another series on my channel of conditioning your body for adventure sports in general.

Just an overall, and it’s free. Um, some of my content you have to subscribe, but some is free. And so we offer these. videos, which I took Rita’s class online, moved out to the water. So I took a class online in the winter, moved out to the water in spring and in April, fingers crossed Alcom, a level one, level two certified standup paddle board.

Uh, just from, uh, getting inspired by watching her on social media. Then collaborating with her, taking her series on my channel, and now I hopefully will be able to instruct soon. Super

Gale Straub: Well that’s really cool. It really de definitely makes it accessible in that way. And I can, um, I’ll make sure to link all those links in the show notes cuz you do so much. Um. This is a, a bigger question of this, this last question, but I am, I am curious about, uh, you know, and timeline wise, was it, was it eight years, nine years ago that you, you started paddling?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: I think about nine years now.

Gale Straub: Nine years. Um, so, so in that time, what, what would you say that water has given you?

Antoinette Lee Toscano: If I had to sum it up in one word, I’d say freedom. at first, it gave me freedom from my walker. Then it gave me freedom from anxiety. I didn’t leave my house for 18 months and. , well, I’d say two months after that I was out on moving water three months. Uh, about three months I think after that I was out on moving water on a river and I felt so free of the city, um, because we were in rural.

Community in North Carolina at the time, and I was just so happy to be free of the noise of life, car traffic and all of the things in people and music and, and free from technology, which was another huge thing. Uh, because at the time I, uh, was writing a lot, so I was always on the computer.

Gale Straub: Mm.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: So water does represent freedom, and if I had to give it a second word, I’d say healing.

It’s something about getting in water, whether it’s the shower, a tub, jacuzzi, a pool, a lake, or a river. I go in with the weight of the world like we all carry in our lives. And then I come out feeling ReSTOR.

even if it was a really bad, scary swim out of my boat, , like the time I got, I, I was in a raft on the cache Le Puda River near Fort Collins, Colorado. And, uh, The raft flipped and I ended up, my worst fear about rafting was being trapped under a raft, and I faced my worst fear being trapped under a raft, and I had to swim out from under the raft with my one shoulder was only marginally attached to my bi.

Up and I had to swim at high water too. And so , um, I did it and I was successful. And there was another woman in the boat who had never been on moving water before and didn’t really need, know what to do to save herself. And so she said, she followed me, everything. . Every move I made, everything I did, every decision I made, she just instinctively followed me because she felt really confident by me.

Which is weird because I was so nervous in a raft myself, and, uh, we, we both were saved . We, but we saved ourselves, which was, you know, we, we saved ourselves until another passing. Could further save us. And that was very powerful for her. And she continues to raft and she really enjoys whitewater. And um, that was a scary moment, but I still love it.

And. It just made me love the sport even more because especially a person who experiencing experiences anxiety, you have so much anxiety, which I do. I, I’ve been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, um, and I experienced very limiting anxiety to where I couldn’t leave my home. So to be so empowered to say I rescued myself on a raging river

Gale Straub: Hmm.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: like, , I don’t know the most.

Uh, I just feel like a super badass , even though I’m only marginally a great, I’m only a marginal kayaker and a marginal rafter cuz I’m learning how to guide a raft myself now. Um, even though my skillsets are so new. And so low in, in the scale of things, I feel like a super badass cuz I can do the thing.

[Music transition]

Gale Straub – Narration: Antoinette is truly doing the thing. And she wants you to be able to do it too. Which is why she wanted to leave you with these parting words.

Antoinette Lee Toscano: There is absolutely nothing special about me. Everything that is within me is within you. Uh, there’s nothing unique to me or. Uh, different that you can’t develop and cultivate in your own lives and your own abilities. You have all the tools to create your new normal. All you have to do is just go out and do it.

And I hope to see you all on the river or in the back country sometime, and give me a holler when you do.

Gale Straub: That’s so great. Thank you so much, Antoinette

Antoinette Lee Toscano: Thank you for having me. This has been fun.

Gale Straub – Narration: Thank you to Antoinette Lee Toscano for taking the time to talk. You can follow along with Antoinette @antoinetteleetoscano on Instagram. I’ll make sure to link AdventureTV, her blog, and all the other great resources Antoinette mentioned in the show notes.

Antoinette’s section in Women in Water is called “Fluidity in Recovery.” Women and Water is a book filled with stories of adventure, self-discovery and connection in and on the water. It’s available for order NOW wherever books are sold. 

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This episode was produced and hosted by me, Gale Straub.

We’ll be back in two weeks. Until then, stay curious.