My passion for the outdoors began on our fourth-generation farm in East Dorset.

As a child, I played outside and in the woods. I learned how to ride horses and was part of the Junior Instructional Ski Program. I got to ski twice a week. I’m the first generation of my family to go to college, but it didn’t take long for me to learn that it wasn’t for me. I flunked out my first year.

It’s not as if I went wild, I just explored a whole bunch of stuff. I didn’t feel truly engaged in the academic work.

That was a huge failure, going from a relatively prestigious private school education to failing out of college. But it was also one of the most important things that could have ever happened to me. It allowed me to step back and think.  

The lesson I learned is to pursue my passion. I went back to the outdoors.  

I taught skiing briefly, but that wasn’t my jam. Being a ski patroller seemed a perfect fit, being on the mountain all day and helping people who need it. To do that, I had to take a wilderness first-response course. That base education about the human body really intrigued me, so I took the basic EMT class and joined the local rescue squad. I found the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn.  

Then came my decision to look into nursing school. Nearly two decades later, I’m now in a nursing leadership position, helping others follow their passion.

Even when moments in nursing really put me on my heels, my love of the outdoors helped ground me. I took a year-long apprenticeship with the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism and became a gardener and herbal medicine enthusiast. I’ve spent a lot of time in my gardens with my husband, growing an apothecary of plants that can help take care of us.

For me, it’s really about connection. Life is so fantastically wonderful when you are connected to nature and to other people, and you can’t be connected to those things if you’re not connected to yourself.

Travis Beebe-Woodard is Director of Inpatient Services at Central Vermont Medical Center, previously working in various nursing roles at University of Vermont Medical Center. He has been with us for nearly 15 years.