 told me for a bit, you know that I went to a sports academy and I was a ski racer and then you might know that I went there with Olivia, but I thought that I would do like a little story time. So for a while now, I've wanted to sit down and make a video about what my high school experience was like because it is really, it was a very unique experience and I would say it definitely shaped me and I think probably you can say you too. Oh yeah. As a person, it's like a pretty incredible unique place. I didn't bring a bikini. I brought two. Three. Woo! Yeah, you're good. But yeah, I've never really sat down to talk about it because I never felt like a sit down talking video would really do the place justice. I don't even know if this video will do the place justice, but I thought that this weekend was a good weekend for me to finally kind of tell you guys what my experience was like at the school and just kind of like what the school was about is one of the most beautiful places I've been to. Introduce you guys to a lot of people that were very big parts of my life. The tough thing about, and I think if you went to boarding school, anyone who went to boarding school can relate to this. You often have a lot of people from all over the world going to these schools. Olivia and I were the only two girls from Connecticut. So you kind of make these best friends especially at a school with 60 kids. These people become family and then you graduate and everyone goes off and either continues to ski race or goes back to their home country or does that. So honestly, we never really get to see a lot of these people. It's like a beautiful aspect of the school, but it's also a tough aspect of the school. Very few people end up living in New York City. I feel like most people end up living in a more outdoorsy city. Like a lot of people end up in San Francisco, Colorado, just out west kind of, or like Portland, Maine. Guess I'll start with how Olivia and I met and then how we both ended up at Burke Mountain Academy which is the high school. So Olivia and I grew up, we both had ski houses at this mountain in Vermont. Olivia and I both grew up every single weekend before we raced. We got in the car on Friday night after school and we packed the bags up and every single weekend are my family and her family. This is before we met. Like we went up every weekend, both of our families even before we met, like this was a tradition. But so my family did that every single weekend and it was just for fun, just for skiing. Skiing was just a very big part of what my family did when we were growing up. It was kind of like our thing. So every single weekend we'd be at the mountains. After doing that for a while, I don't know how you got into racing but for me, I got into racing because I was kind of like, what else can I do on the weekends when I'm up there because we got so good at just free skiing. I was skiing every single weekend. It was fun but I got to a point where I was like, I either want to compete doing freestyle skiing which is like jumps and half pipe or like racing. It was kind of just stay busy on the weekends. And it was also like quite social at the mountain that we grew up at. There are these spider racing suits. Like I'm gonna insert a picture of the old spider suit that I first saw and I was at a ski shop with my grandfather and I was like, grandpa I really want that spider suit. I don't know what you do in that thing but I just really want it and I want to wear it. And my grandpa goes, Paige you have to be a racer and these things are not cheap. It's like, okay, well, sign me up. So my grandpa actually bought me my first race suits. My parents wouldn't buy it for me. They were like, we're not buying you a $500 fucking spider spandex suit. Anyways, I had to sign up for racing. Signed up for racing so I could pretty much wear this suit. We jumped to Olivia and I meeting, we were on the ski team at Okimo and Olivia was wearing the most flamboyant, crazy ass, insert a picture of Olivia. She wore this matching, which is honestly kind of an iconic move now. Like no one wore like matching ski sets at this point. Now that's like the cute thing to do but no one was wearing matching jacket, snow pant combo. So Olivia is the only person on our ski team that has this fucking flower. Like it was the craziest outfit. Hot pink, hot orange lined with silver and fur on the hood. You can't forget the fur on the chairlift that we would train on on the race hill. Was it like a three-seater? Wasn't it? Three or two. Three or two. It was three and there was four of us. Yeah. So Olivia and I both got ditched by the cool girls essentially and then we look at each other. I remember looking at Olivia and the lift line. We were the only ones in the line. We go, oh, I guess we have to go up together. We look at each other and we're like, okay, I guess we have to go up together. And then Olivia and I went up together and honestly the rest is history. Like we didn't speak to the other girls after we know you're my friend. Yeah, we're like, you're the girl, that's it. Like after that Olivia and I were completely and totally inseparable. No, like we did not go anywhere or do anything without each other. That feels like another life. Doesn't it feel like another life? Like we wouldn't sleep. Like we would sleep at each other's condos. Like one weekend it was your condo and then it was my condo. Like we wouldn't sleep separately. No, no, we would not sleep separately. Olivia and I made the council team and then it was kind of time to start doing this thing called winter term which is, this might be really confusing but basically you take your curriculum for the winter and you live up at the mountains all winter so you can go to all the races and you can compete. It's called winter term at Okimo Mountain School which is our home mountain. So Olivia and I both went to Okimo Mountain School. How many years? Seventh, sixth, seventh, sixth, seventh grade. Six, yeah, sixth and seventh grade. I think I just did seven. I think you did six. I did six. One year I did it. Yeah, I did six and seventh grade and Olivia and I lived with a host family and we basically lived with them and we were able to live up there in the winter. Six and seventh grade. And then when you get around eighth grade in high school you kind of have to pick a ski academy if you want to keep racing. So there were only like a few ski academies. I decided to go to Stratton Mountain School for like multiple reasons. All the ski academies are known for different things. Stratton when I was applying was known for more academics and it's also closer to home. And then there's Burke Mountain Academy which is like the top of the top kids. Pretty much if you're gonna be on the US ski team if you're going to the Olympics you're going to Burke. The best kids went to Burke but it was really fucking far away and academically it wasn't as known. It wasn't as known for their academics. There are really smart kids and a lot of kids end up going to Ivy's but it wasn't necessarily known for their academics. And then there's Green Mountain Valley School which I honestly didn't know much about. So Olivia decided to go to Burke Mountain Academy which is the place that we're going to now and I actually decided to go to Stratton Mountain School for eighth grade. Went for eighth grade and I ended up really not liking it and then I also was watching like Olivia at Burke having the time of her life and I was like okay I made the wrong choice. I ended up applying to Burke and then I went to Burke freshman year. So the story of how we ended up at Burke. I think Burke is the most special boarding school skiing academy because of the culture. The culture. School is just really rooted in tradition in the school and I was actually talking to Olivia and Tommy about this the other night at dinner because it's really funny talking to Burke. Talking about Burke with people that are close with me and I was saying that one, the school has something called the honor code which we sign when we're, we sign every year and it was basically just like how we live on campus and how we conduct ourselves as community members. It's like a very community based school. All when we were there really upheld the honor code and followed that like closely and the honor code was made when the school was founded. It's a very small school. Everyone's athletes. What Olivia and I were talking about the other night was that it's a very senior class run school and the seniors have a major responsibility to teach the young kids about the traditions of the school and what is to be expected at the schools. You really, really are going your freshman year and then looking up to the seniors a ton for work ethic, kind of how they carry themselves and then they kind of teach you everything about the traditions of the school. There's all of the dorms are pretty much the same as they were when the school started. The school is literally on the side of a mountain in Vermont. We worked out twice a day, very, very intense physically, very intense workouts and then in the winter we would get in the morning and then go to school in the afternoon and yeah. It was just so different than high school. Like everyone wants to be there and wants to be the best version of themselves that wants to work incredibly hard to like reach their potential. And it sounds so cheesy, but like it's like it's the greatest place to foster excellence. It's definitely a very, very interesting school because I feel like a lot of people have high school experiences that are very negative and I did like struggle mentally at the end of my time at Burke because I was ready to be done with my sport. It's like different passions. Yeah, like I was just very interested in like design and other things and like it's such a specific place where everyone's goal is one thing and mine was starting to change. I struggled at the end of Burke but in general, like we're all very competitive. We really didn't have that many issues at the school. Everyone were like teammates in support of each other and like it wasn't clicky. It was just like a really positive crazy experience but it also set this crazy high expectation for me with friendships and people. Like I did not, there was not one person that I didn't feel like had genuine intentions. I just grew up around such like amazing, hardworking people who wanted the best for everyone. So now like going into the real world, I was like, wow, girls are really mean and terrible and nasty. Like it didn't prepare me to like deal with mean girls as well. Cause I feel like we had such an insane supportive group and that just wasn't really tolerated. So Olivia went to Boulder to ski. They're like one of the top D1 ski schools in the country. So she won't, she continued to ski in college. And I feel like as amazing as Burke is kind of like in ways like socially can like, it's just such like a bubble. It's a bubble. It's a bubble of like amazing, hardworking people. Yeah, nothing else exists. We didn't have like cell service or freshman year. We spent all of our time outside. We don't have four square, sunsets, basketball. Like hiking, biking, spending all of our time outdoors. Probably one of the coolest things that you haven't touched on yet is like the work ethic, like the hard work that went through all of the workouts and stuff like the grind and the determination, like doing mud pits, doing suicides in the sand at 6.30 in the morning. Yeah, it was a lot of like very outdoor workouts. Like we would literally have to pull logs through the woods and like tear up our shoulder. Friday right now we're heading up. The main event stuff is tomorrow and then we're leaving Sunday, right? Hopefully I'll get this vlog up on Sunday. A lot of people don't really understand it because I haven't like properly explained it. So yeah. So dining hall, there's a dorm up there that I used to live in. That's a dorm. And then that's the main academic building in the library. Live it smells the exact same. Going to go pick up breakfast and coffee. I feel like it's really day one of the reunion. Like last night, everyone was just showing up, but today. Night one, day one. Yeah, today is the dinner, like the formal dinner. What else is there today? Oh, there's like dancing and a party on campus. There's like hikes and activities that we won't be participating. So tradition at our school, that was very traumatizing for me. I was a traumatizing for you. Yeah. So we had physical testing when we showed up in the fall after a summer of being away from school. And one of the physical testings was the 1.75, which is like a run that you do. It's kind of like a sprint, longer sprint. And I threw up every year doing it. And anyways, you'd basically have anxiety about this physical testing all summer and then show up and be like, but they literally had the 1.75 at the reunion for like a lump to do. And I was like, guys, let's be fucking for real. Were you blocked out? You were definitely the drunkest. And then I get a text from you saying, I'm booting help. All right guys, guys, I didn't tell the vlog that yet. I didn't tell the vlog that. Liam fully exposing me. I texted Liam. What time? Like one. Like one, one, 30. And I go, Liam, I'm throwing up. I like thought it was a good idea. What do they call it? I put like a zen in, like the little, what are they called? Zen. Zen. A lip. And I was just trying to be that bitch. And I literally yanked like five minutes later. Get that content, girl. I will. Thank you. Wow, this latte is actually hitting. Do you have your latte here? I do. Can you take talk of the trip? No, but I should. Great idea, I'm not taking zero videos. It's okay. Like yesterday we showed up when it was dark. Okay, we got bacon, egg and cheeses and coffee and water. And we're going to head to Lake Willoughby. It's not like the nicest day out, but it's still pretty. Oh yeah, we're going to go there before the dinner tonight. How's your bagel? Stopping my face. Is it good? Wow, it's so fucking pretty here. I was literally about to just say that. I was like, live. This isn't the right way. This is not the right way. Why are we leaving tomorrow? Okay, this is like the secret little, ow, secret little not so secret spot anymore. This is the lake. And it's like this treacherous fucking path down. Hey guys, it is raining still. I'm just walking to the little dinner now. This is like, it probably gives some really confused looks, but it's the combination of pushing yourself really hard, but then doing it with people that you love and that you respect. They're to the hard work and that's a really successful combination. One of my art mountain academy always did it with such pride and such. And Olivia's wearing a man's clothing. You an age ski team bitch. Not like that. It's not like that. It's not like that. It's not like that. It's a burky thing. It's still funny though. I completely lost my voice. I didn't vlog dancing or like the party at all last night. No, it was too fun. It was too fun. I literally get pancakes. Never liked them all these. Cool. So Olivia and I are up and out of, completely lost my voice. And I was going to, oh, both my cameras are also dead, but I was gonna, actually no one camera's not dead. My big camera and I was gonna come this morning and take B roll at the campus to like show you guys how beautiful it is here and show you guys there's like a mountain. We drive up. There's fire tower. We can drive. Live in a fucking cloud. We could drive to fire tower. I mean, I'm kind of down, but like, yeah, this whole place is in a fucking cloud. So I wanna see the dance party roll. Oh yeah. Okay, Olivia and I are packing up to head home now. We actually have to review something for our denim before we leave. Olivia, do you wanna review that stuff now? Guys, it is absolutely absurd. How much reviewing and sampling has to go into a pair of denim? Like every week we're like approving stuff. That's why I'm approving the buttons. No, I know that's what I was saying. I'll do it on the vlog. I'll review. Can I show them this stuff? But I did not film that much last night. Not surprising. Like no one here is like very much on their phone that much. It's like kind of how the school was when I was here, but like I'm sad I didn't get video from last night, but I also like it was nice to not be on my phone like at all. But there was like a dance party. It's kind of like a wedding. It's like a live band. And then there was like a house party after. Whoa. How did she put the buttons on the panel? So these are rivets and buttons. We've changed them to make them perfect. I want to show you guys before the vlog ends because it's kind of cool. Oh, that's really cool. Oh, she like put it on. So I actually wanted to up the quality and the weight on the button because I wanted it to have more like a sturdy, really good feeling. So that was important to us. And that's a change that we made. Live, they're really good. So I wanted to feel like when you're buttoning up the jeans it's like really sturdy. Although live, the button doesn't really fit through this whole well. Maybe that's just cause it's the sample. Do you see? I'll tell you that. I really have to call her. The wash is so good live. These say Dairy Boy on them. We decided to do a big button on the top with little buttons underneath. And then these little rivets all over the jeans. We decided to put little stars on them. I'm sure you can't tell because I'm filming on my iPhone right now. But a lot of detail and thought have gone into these jeans. And as someone who was working with wholesale for hats and sweatshirts like I wasn't making those hats myself, the projects that we have to come that we're gonna be dropping were all custom made. It's like this denim was 100% made by us every decision was made by us. The fabric is ours. The wash is ours. We're launching new sweatsets, sweatpants and bottoms that were completely made by us. We picked the fabric, we picked the cut, the fit. We are launching a pattern that you guys can probably guess. Making our own hats to come. We're doing a lot of different stuff. That's all a complete custom program. No one else will have it. It's not wholesale anymore. Which has been really cool but it's definitely like a lot more time consuming and it's just a lot more harder decisions because we're really having the control. Guys, look at all of these flowers she gave me. Colleen, my literal Colleen. Okay. Do not put me in the vlog. We're done. I am, we're talking ramen noodles. I lost my voice. I'll be a lost surgidity. Yeah, I'm kidding. Nothing crazy happened. The craziest part of the weekend is no one hooked up. No one hooked up. Not a single person. We're like too old for that. I ever knew that, like that behavior couldn't have happened. And my vlog, I hope you enjoyed this. I don't even know what I filmed. But yeah, I love you guys. See you next week. Olivia thought it was a good idea to let me go into the Vermont country store. Not a good idea.