Essential Trails Series: Xuân Mai Võ
Throughout December, Evergreen will feature essays, personal anecdotes, and portraits of Washington workers who have used mountain biking and access to trails as a tool for coping with the stresses of 2020.
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Read on for Xuân Mai's story and to learn why trails are important to her:
Xuân Mai Võ
Veterinarian
Photos courtesy of Xuân Mai Võ
Claustrophobia was the outstanding feeling of my pandemic experience. I recognize the privilege in this statement.
Veterinarians are deemed essential, our profession provides medical care to non-human animals, providing critical expertise in food safety, agricultural operations, scientific research, prevention of disease outbreak, and caring for the well-being of beloved family members. We protect public health through surveillance of zoonotic diseases, those transmissible between animals and humans (such as the ones that your dog or cat are vaccinated against) as well as the agent of the current pandemic. Although my profession prepared me to handle the protocols of such an event, I wasn't expecting the claustrophobia brought on by the duty to fulfill my social contract through self quarantine, by the betrayal I felt by others' reluctance to participate in caring for others, and by the distress of having to be at work without proper PPE. A healthcare worker's empathy and dedication to our patients and our jobs often leads to violation of physical and mental self-preservation, regardless of which discipline we are in or of its actual legal requirements. A pandemic worsens the odds against all of us, essential or not.
After the lengthy weeks of the initial quarantine, the constant stressors of work and isolation tugging at the edges of sanity and physical capabilities, a ray of light came when access to trails was officially deemed acceptable to public health. Saved from re-enacting a Lord of The Flies situation amongst podmates and colleagues, putting soles (souls!) and tires on dirt trails dissipated my claustrophobia.
Endorphins released by the physicality of a dig day or a ride, ushered a more restful sleep and tapped into a buried supply of hope, a second wind in the pandemic marathon we all find ourselves reluctant participants in. The trails offer a reprieve from the constraints, the stressors of viral risk, and the uncertainty of the future.
Although distanced or out of sight, a tribe of people share these trails relatively responsibly– a tangible promise of familiarity, of adjusted normalcy, things worth the temporary sacrifice and throttling of personal gain. One thing is for sure, regardless of how old a bike is, what material it’s made of, what size wheels it carries, or what powers it, the combination of it and access to these trails is solace for many of us. It certainly is for me, pandemic or not.
- Xuân Mai Võ