I met Angelique in 2015. She ended up on the same crossfit team as Jeff for a crossfit competition, and I immediately fell in love with her. We became friends, and as the friendship evolved, I quickly found out she’s actually a legit English fitness ninja, AKA she’s been teaching English at an online college for 13 years and is a personal trainer and a total badass who has endured a lot of really hard crap in her life.
I knew immediately that I wanted her on my team. I wanted her drive and ambition and empowerment and fight. I knew she had a voice that aligned with SSJ, and at the time, I was looking, praying, and manifesting for women to come my way that could join my movement and mission. She has been such a beautiful addition to my life and the mission I am wanting to share.
I’ve been wanting to do SSJ retreats for years and have never taken the leap until Angelique and I were talking one day and we said, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! LET’S DO IT!! She told me she was in the shower and the name SIMPLY WILD came to her mind! IT WAS PERFECT!!! We haven’t stopped planning and preparing since! She brings the grit, the backpacking education, and her story to this beautiful retreat, and I have loved having her by my side! I know you will fall in love with her too!
Hey, guys! My name is Angelique Fish (@adventures_of_afish on IG). I am originally from a teeny tiny town in southeastern Oklahoma (population 80), where “over yonder” is a place and where people say things like “warsh” instead of “wash.”
When I was 21, I left Oklahoma and its hot and humid, tick-infested summers behind and moved to Mountain Home, Idaho, which is waaaaay less mountain-y than it sounds. After a few more moves, I made it to Utah, where I have lived the past 10 years and where I live with my husband, Rob, and my 8-year-old boxer, Dezi.
Here are 5 things to know about me.
1. I was in an emotionally abusive marriage for 10 years, which I talk about in more detail on the Simply Wild home page. In short, my ex-husband was extremely controlling, manipulative, and verbally abusive. I was also very sick myself, which I didn’t realize until after the marriage was over. As soon as that nightmare ended, I took responsibility for my role in it and did the work to ensure I would never let anyone treat me like that again. Despite everything, I’ve never regretted the 10 years I spent with my ex-husband. Those 10 years taught me how strong I am, and they led me to where I am today.
2. I love hiking and backpacking, especially with other strong women. I went on my first backpacking trip about 10 years ago, but it wasn’t until my marriage ended 4 years ago that I traveled into the wilderness with my girlfriends and found myself in the middle of nowhere. It’s empowering as a woman to be able to carry 35-50 pounds on my back for hours upon hours up and down rugged, remote terrain, to have to set up camp, cut firewood, and filter water at the end up the day, no matter how exhausted I am and no matter how tired my feet are. It’s even more empowering at the end of the night when my girlfriends and I are kicked back in our backpacking chairs, eating our freeze-dried meals, and knowing that WE did this and that we didn’t need men to help us.
In addition to having my first aid and CPR certification, I am also certified in wilderness first aid and Leave No Trace Principles.
3. I love being active. I played basketball from middle school to high school because everyone in Oklahoma plays basketball. It wasn’t until after college when I moved to Idaho that I got into lifting weights and running 10Ks and half-marathons. Although I don’t enjoy running anymore, I still love to lift and have been doing it now for more than 15 years. Going to the gym every day is a hobby for me. And even though I started out lifting to look good, these days it’s about being strong.
4. I’ve worked in writing and education for the past 15+ years. After I finished my master’s degree, I started out teaching English at a treatment facility for male juvenile sex offenders ages 12-18 and eventually became the lead teacher at the facility’s school. That was hand’s down the most rewarding job I’ve ever done. I’ve also ran the vocational education program for 7 adult prisons under the Idaho Department of Corrections, I created computer-based training for Hill Air Force Base, and I proofread novels, manuscripts, educational textbooks, product guides, and marketing materials for a writing consultant. While working full-time, I also taught college English courses for 13 years online and face-to-face for Park University. These days, I work full-time as a proposal writer for a federal construction company, and I work part-time for Simply Sadie Jane.
5. I got remarried almost exactly a year ago to the most amazing man. Rob is the most thoughtful, caring, and sensitive man I’ve ever met. He is constantly taking personal inventory on how he can be a better person and a better husband (although I don’t think that’s possible because he is already an awesome husband.) He is very in touch with his feelings and his thoughts, which allows us to talk and work through issues in a respectful, mature way. He loves my family and treats my parents with genuine adoration. Lastly, he treats me like I’m perfect even though he knows I’m not.
Enough with all the serious stuff. Here are a few quick fun things about me.
- I am part Choctaw and Chickasaw (and I just found out through Ancestry.com that I’m also Israeli).
- I have naturally curly hair. I used to hate it in high school (hello, Oklahoma humidity!) and would iron it . . . on an ironing board . . . with an iron.
- Speaking of hair, I grow randomly long hairs on my body. I have a thin, blonde neck hair that grows to about 2 or 3 inches, I have a random thin, blonde arm hair that grows off my arm, and I recently found a lone back hair that was 4 inches long. Guinness World Records, here I come!
- I spent more than half my life as a member of the military family. My dad was in the Marines until I was 10, and I was a military spouse for 10 years.
- I’m a helicopter dog mom. My boxer, Dezi, has degenerative myelopathy (DM), which is the dog form of Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), so she is slowly becoming paralyzed. (She rocks a wheelchair at the park these days.) I cook Dezi her own food, I have her on an intense supplement regimen, and I tell her how beautiful she is at least 1 million times a day. My husband and I are constantly saying to each other, “Look at her now. Look how cute she is now.”
