Who Am I

“Let me fall. Let me climb. There’s a moment where fear and dream must collide.”

– Josh Groban

Yes. I just quoted Josh Groban. So sue me. You’ve got to admit, it’s a great quote. And it’s pretty much how I live my life ‘outside the box’. Allow me to introduce myself.

I’m Michelle Gallardo. If you live in Chicago, and the name sounds familiar, that’s because I’m also a television news journalist at ABC7. WLS-TV has been my work home for…well, a long time now. I’m incredibly blessed with a career I love. It’s taken me from Chicago to Washington DC to Mexico City to Hollywood to Sri Lanka to Uganda and back again. But that’s work. It’s an important part of me, but not all of me. And that’s not what this blog is about. This blog is about my life ‘outside the box.’ A cliché, yes, but cliches exist for a reason. Which brings me back to Josh Groban and that quote.  “There is a moment where fear and dream must collide.” Wish I’d written that.

Michelle 2.0, as I’ll call her, was born January 2007. I had recently taken up scuba diving and was in Cozumel getting my advanced certification. Up until then I wasn’t the healthiest person in the world. I certainly wasn’t active. The sudden, intense interest in scuba took me by surprise. I loved it. The freedom, the peace, the discovery of an entirely new world, just beneath the surface, waiting to be explored. I came back from that trip with a realization: aging was inevitable. But the road that would take was entirely up to me.

How about triathlon? Yep. Sedentary Michelle who hadn’t worked out in 20 years decided she should join a gym. Within weeks I was signing up for an indoor triathlon class; you know, to keep me accountable. Fast forward 5 years and I was back in Cozumel, lining up at the start of my first Ironman.  Mind blown.

Ironman, which in case you don’t know, is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run, forever altered my being. It was in that moment, having crossed the finish line, that it dawned on me: Nothing is impossible. It all comes down to will. Cliché yes. But again, cliches exist for a reason.

In the years since, I’ve discovered my main motivator is fear. I like to do things that scare me. That make me just a little bit, or a lot, uncomfortable. I’m also a bit of a restless spirit. An adventurer. A citizen of the world. A foodie. There’s a marathon in Tokyo you say. How about one through Big Five territory in South Africa, and another at Mount Everest? Sign me up! I’ll plan the entire trip down to the best hole-in-the-wall Nepali restaurant in that remote Himalayan village. It’s what I do. And love.

So this is where the blog comes in. If it all works out, I see this becoming an equal parts travel, race and food diary. Time will tell. In the meantime, welcome and thank you for reading.

Michelle Gallardo