Lean Out Podcast

Lean Out Podcast 

During the summer of 2019, my husband and I traveled to a climbing area called The Fins in Idaho to spend the weekend climbing and catching up with some of his old friends from the Red River Gorge. Sitting around the campfire in the evening, his old friends reminisced about their international climbing trips. What stuck with me the most was his friend saying, "There's never a good time; you just need to go." 

Around the same time, while working a night shift, a colleague introduced me to Dr. Dawn Baker's blog Practice Balance. I was primarily motivated by the post, "Life as a series of sabbaticals," as it highlighted the various stages of life during which Dr. Baker took longer stretches of time off, many of which were nontraditional, such as taking a gap year during medical school. While I know many climbers with alternative lifestyles, I had not known anyone in healthcare who had achieved that degree of work-life balance. 

We planned a 6-week trip to Spain and took a personal leave of absence from my nursing job, although the trip was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We still wanted to pursue this dream and decided that a more extended trip would make the most sense after completing my education years later. After graduating from school, my husband and I went on a climbing sabbatical. The pandemic and my nursing career working in settings such as critical care, trauma, and oncology regularly exposed me to serious illness & death, reinforcing the belief that I should not wait for retirement to follow my passions. After completing my DNP degree in May 2024, Zane and I embarked on our climbing sabbatical. 

This past summer, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Dawn Baker about our recent sabbatical, climbing, and career transitions. To listen to this interview, follow the link below. The original blog post written by Dr. Dawn Baker, titled "A life in a series of sabbaticals," is also included below. 

https://practicebalance.com/2025/07/lean-out-podcast-adventure-with-meagan-gallagher/

https://practicebalance.com/2018/10/life-as-a-series-of-sabbaticals/