Pack Light: A Black Queer Journey to Find Myself

After losing her job due to the coronavirus pandemic, a vet tech decides to confront the roots of her childhood traumas by hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Pack Light follows a woman’s journey changing the narrative of Hiking While Black--because the Great Outdoors belongs to everyone.

This memoir will trace Shilletha’s thru-hike from Georgia to Maine as she decided to confront the roots of her trauma. Growing up, Curtis suffered from a fractured family life, bullying at school, indifferent teachers, and abuse from people she trusted. Then she discovered the Appalachian Trail, which she successfully hiked in 2021. It took her eight months and four seasons to hike through 14 states, even more impressive given her lifelong struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD.

Shilletha ＂Dragonsky＂ Curtis was born in Newark, New Jersey and spent much of her time growing up on the Jersey Shore. Shilletha received her Bachelor’s in Social Work from Rutgers University in 2014 and spent a summer abroad in Beijing, China (2012) to further her Mandarin speaking skills and then traveled to Romania (2013) to do an internship at an orphanage in Cluj-Napoca. Helping people has always been her passion, but she eventually found that she had a profound love for animals and eventually the outdoors. She trained as a Veterinary Technician in 2016 in Austin, Texas and practiced for two years. She lost her job due to the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020. Like many, with a new outlook on life, Shilletha decided to pursue hiking, beginning with the Appalachian Trail. One day, her dream is to finish The Triple Crown, which is the highest honor, in hiking, completing the Appalachian, Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide. Her journey to complete continues though in every way--she’s already won.