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Statement
BORN: BOTTOM OF THE GRAND CANYON

I lived and worked there for 3 1/2 years, when I was 25 through 28.

The courage it took for me to erase the box that I had around my life and go, take the opportunity, a job where I had to live at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, was the courage that I ended up needing to live anywhere, and believe I could do anything and design the life I wanted.

I remember I was hiking there and I found out about the job. So I went on a walk by myself and I thought “Oh, I can’t possibly go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to work. I’m in college and I’m on a track and I need to go back to my classes this semester.” And then I remembered that that’s not true, and I could do whatever I wanted. I took the job and lived at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. To get there, and to get out, you have to hike 7 1/2 miles. So anytime you’re on days off from living there, it’s a 7 ½ mile hike out and back. In many ways the hike showed me the kinds of things I could do with my body, physically, and how I proved that I could do very monumental things over and over again—how much stronger I was was than I thought. It was almost a metaphor for everything I’ve done thus far in my life. Every single time I hiked out, it never was easy, and every time I thought I couldn’t do it, and every time I got to the top and it was done, and I would do it again.

—Lauren Bille

All images copyright Ellen Jacob

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