Nicole Antoinette – författare

In 2017, stuck in a loop of codependency and people-pleasing, 32-year-old novice backpacker Nicole Antoinette sets off to find her self-belief and inner resilience by doing something she does not for one second believe she can actually do: solo- hike all 800 miles of the rugged Arizona Trail.

The guiding question she brings with her is this: What do we find when we push ourselves further than we ever thought we could go?

How To Be Alone: an 800-mile hike on the Arizona Trail is a cathartic adventure memoir that explores the privilege to be able to choose your own suffering, as well as the process of becoming a better friend to yourself along the way.

What happens when you don''t want the same things that everyone around you seems to want? How lonely is a life lived off the traditional path? 

In August 2021, after years of grieving a divorce, living in a tiny van, and grappling with pandemic isolation, lapsed hiker Nicole Antoinette set out to walk all 491 miles of the Colorado Trail.

It had been more than two years since her last long-distance hike at that point, and she had no idea if she could still do it. Was it unrealistic to think that she could spend months of each year out in the wilderness? At 36-years-old shouldn''t she be focusing on other goals? A career, for instance, or buying a house and putting down roots?

What We Owe to Ourselves is a thoughtful and fun adventure memoir, exploring what happens when you decide to turn away from all the "shoulds" and take the risk of defining success for yourself instead.