“Always be able to look back and say, at least I didn’t lead no humdrum life.”
Forrest Gump (and Alia Payne)
Alia’s life-list of adventures is Forrest Gump-ish; plausible feats that are almost too far-fetched to be believed. She grew up on an island in a house her parents built by themselves. She spent large parts of her childhood in a little boat on the Pacific Ocean exploring tiny sand islets while helping her mom study rare gulls. She played saxophone in her high school band and midfielder on her high school soccer team. She ran track and played pickup ice hockey in college. She majored in Geology in Minnesota and studied glaciers in the Andes. She learned celestial navigation while sailing from Tahiti to Hawaii. She worked on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska. She helped film an interview with Oprah Winfrey. She herded donkeys.
She’s discreet about her future plans, but we’re betting on ping-pong and shrimp.
[FYI: It’s pronounced All’-ya; rhymes with “I’ll call ya'”]