Adriane Ferez: Life's a journey—it's OK to take your time
At a young age, some people know who they are and what they want to be when they grow up. But for most of us, coming to these conclusions takes trial and error, along with courage, persistence, and determination. It’s these three qualities that epitomize Adriane (Ferguson) Ferez.
In college, Adriane dipped her toe in lots of studies before landing on international business. She wasn’t entirely sure where this degree would take her, but she felt confident in her communication skills and work ethic after putting in four years of relentless effort on the women’s basketball team at Washington State University (#gocougs).
After graduation, she took a job with Basketball Travelers, a company that organizes international tours and tournaments for teams. Then, she worked for Seafair, using her experience to help plan the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. Following a layoff (hello, 2008), Adriane got hired by Competitor Group, a job that moved her to San Diego.
Perhaps simply getting out of the Pacific Northwest to a sunnier climate helped Adriane see more clearly. Along with the gray skies turning blue, she started feeling more like herself. She dove into the why behind her previous career moves, and decided to start pursuing a career that challenged her physically while providing an opportunity to literally help others. Adriane became a firefighter.
In 2010, Adriane met someone who helped her put other pieces of herself together, a very slow process that led to Adriane coming out about a year later. Though this is an extremely abbreviated summary of these transformative years of her life, Adriane got married a few years later, and she and her wife welcomed boy-girl twins in 2016.
Life’s a beautiful and messy ride, and Adriane is proof that you have to ride the highs and experience the lows in order to fully live. She’s no longer married, but her twins continue to keep her positive and help her focus on unexpected joys. Adriane is motivated to be a role model for others wanting to live as their truest selves, and she will undoubtedly inspire her kids to study whatever sparks their interest, travel wherever the wind takes them, explore and explore some more, and become whomever they want to be.
Q & A with Adriane Ferez
Where do you get your energy/what motivates you?
“I get my energy from lots of coffee! (Haha!) My kids motivate me every day to be a better person. I constantly think about the type of person and mom I want to be for them and usually make decisions based on how it enhances our lives. Other motivators I have are nature! I prefer being in the mountains and trees, but because there’s not a lot of those in San Diego, I’ve fallen in love with the ocean and waves. Getting outside is a huge passion of mine and always inspires me.”
What other women inspire you?
“Currently I’m inspired by girls who can surf! I’ve lived in San Diego now for 10 years and recently tried to pick it up again with not a lot of success. LOL. It looks so easy but it’s actually really hard. So any girl who can do this is a badass.
“I’m also inspired by any woman who is doin’ their thang! That ranges from my friends like YOU, Cheryl Strayed, to professional soccer players like Megan Rapinoe and musicians like Taylor Swift, comedians like Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, other first responders, moms that I see running with strollers, and, of course, I’m always inspired by my sister.”
What’s your pie-in-the-sky dream or ambition?
“The last five years I’ve wanted to write children’s books for kids to help explain subjects like same sex marriage, divorce, race … how to explain to my kids how they were created and how they don’t have a daddy, etc. (I had to explain that one this week!).”
What’s your go-to recipe?
Kale Power Bowl! See Adriane’s recipe here.
How do you break up your days/what’s a day-in-the-life look like?
“My schedule is crazy because of my non-traditional schedule [as a firefighter]. On my in-between days, I don’t have my kids, so I will typically workout in the morning, clean the house and/or do house projects, do errands, and then try to get some study time in to take the next [firefighter] engineers’ test.
“On days that I have the kids, I always go for a run with them around 9 or 10 a.m.. It’s really slow and not pretty, but it still counts, right? After that, it’s pretty much just mom life! The twins love going to the zoo, the beach, having play dates with their friends and cousins. We will usually watch a movie at night to wind down and then read some books and always tell stories after that (putting them down never ends it feels like).”
How do you stay organized or what strategies do you have for accomplishing goals?
“I actually have an old school firefighter calendar that I write everything out on. It has my fire schedule on it so it really helps keep me organized.”
Do you have any good life hacks?
“Not really! Don’t change your oil where the dipstick is?” (Editor’s note: I HAD to include this gem of advice as Adriane and I once were confronted with needing to add oil to her old school Ford Bronco. Neither of us knew what we were doing, so she tried adding oil where the dipstick sits, instead of in the oil reservoir. Needless to say, we received a nice lesson from the gas station attendant and still made it to the Counting Crows/John Mayer concert on time.)
Name three positives to have come out of 2020 for you personally.
“Here’s a couple: I hiked up Half Dome in August! It’s been on my bucket list forever. We were climbing up the cables while the sun was rising over the mountains. I’ll never forget that moment. I could hardly enjoy it though because I was so scared of slipping! Also, camping with the twins up in Mammoth in July was really special for me, too. We even saw a few bears! They were freaking out.”
