At six years old, Rhianna Wulfraat (12) stood at the base of a mountain in Estes Park. Shoulder to shoulder with her dad and brother, the little girl stared up at the sharp, jagged edges of the rock wall in front of her, finding only a small amount of comfort in the rope that would prevent her from plummeting to the ground below.
With no prior climbing experience, Wulfraat would only make it halfway up the face that day, six feet from the unforgiving dirt beneath her. Hitting a wall—both figuratively and literally.
“I start the climb and do not get far. I’m this weak, little six-year-old that just saw her brother, like, run up the wall,” Wulfraat said. “And I’m like, ‘How did he do that?’ I’m getting really mad because I can’t do this thing that I really want to be able to do.”
The climb proved to be a metaphor for Wulfraat, not just for rock climbing, but for the important areas of her life. In middle school, she came across a similar situation with her mental health, unable to continue the climb to recovery. No matter what she did, the deep pit of sadness in her life continued to seep into every pivotal area of her life. School, friends, family.
“I was just never functioning on the same level as everybody else,” Wulfraat said. “The school systems I was in didn’t really offer support for it at the time.”
Taking place simultaneously with the shift in Wulfraat’s mental health was her family’s move to Florida following her dad’s new job. A new place meant navigating treatment, accommodations, and adjusting to a brand new place. It also meant that a support system outside of her family was essentially nonexistent.
“When I started high school, I started at a private school in Florida. They didn’t do any kind of 504 plan, no accommodations whatsoever.” Wulfraat said.
504 plans are installed for children with learning disabilities or other special circumstances, and provide students with accommodations that help support them during school hours. Because her new school didn’t offer any kind of plan for support, Wulfraat felt increasingly overwhelmed facing the new horizons in her life.
“The hardest part about the Florida experience was, again, there was nobody who was trying to help me, other than my parents,” Wulfraat said.
Wulfraat’s family history with depression and struggles with mental health meant that her parents became a crutch for her through her experiences. Feeling abandoned by her school’s admin and her peers, Wulfraat turned to the only other support system she’s known— her family.
“My parents have been around the block with it, so luckily, I had a support system before everything went badly. Which I’m very lucky for, I was definitely set up for success in that area,” Wulfraat said.
It is a well-known fact that unfortunate circumstances bring people together, and for Wulfraat, her adversity brought her closer to her parents. There was never a moment when she was alone in her struggles, which was crucial to navigating through the hard moments.
“I think that’s probably one of the most important things when it comes to the mental health of youth, is the parents,” Wulfraat said. “The parents need to be way more active, way more supportive than I think most of them typically are.”
The support Wulfraat received from her family allowed her to flourish in other areas of her life and express herself through the things in life that bring her joy. Whether it is getting outside in nature, putting together an outfit, or going to the climbing gym. Wulfraat has cracked the code to seeking out the positives.
“I think life itself is very inspiring, but I think my dad and my parents are probably the people who inspired me to want to love life,” Wulfraat said. “Just being outside and hearing all the birds and the sounds of the forest, listening to the wind. That gives me purpose in life, just to be able to be as privileged as I am, to hear these things, to see these things, to feel these things, is inspiring in itself.”
Wulfraat’s unique sense of style is an important piece of the identity she has created for herself. Layered textures, bright colors, patterns, styles, and cuts all come together to create outfits that are unique to who Wulfraat is.
“I always loved wearing princess dresses, as many young girls do, but it was all the time, and I would never take it off. I just loved dressing up and feeling pretty,” Wulfraat said. “And then, as I started to get older, I just really started to notice colors and how they work together.”
Through the changing tides of her life, fashion, art, and nature have become safe spaces. To build a connection with her dad, Wulfraat also stepped outside of her comfort zone and revisited climbing, and she didn’t revisit it to the first degree. No, Wulfraat decided to brave a climb up Mount Mönch in Switzerland, accompanied by her dad.
“You’re on a rope tied to another person, walking up these icy ridges that are like 13,000 feet up. Like that’s how tall the mountain is,” Wulfraat said. “So the year after we went to Florida, we went to Switzerland to go climb this mountain, and it was the most fun experience I’ve ever had.”
After summiting the mountain, Wulfraat began attending an indoor rock-climbing gym as a way to spend even more quality time with her dad, an ex-mountaineer, who was her main inspiration behind the climb in Switzerland.
“I think having a skill my dad and I know we both love to do, and something we can enjoy together, is really important to me, and I know it’s really important to him as well,” Wulfraat said. “The memories that I make now and later with him doing these activities are going to last me for the rest of my life, even when he’s not here.”
Years after her initial rock-climbing experience with her dad, she decided to return to that same rock that she had attempted to climb at age six. This time, she made it to the top.
“I was proving to myself it’s okay to fail at things, but it’s not okay to quit,” Wulfraat said. “I needed to come back and prove to myself that I’m not a quitter, that I can do this, and I will do this,”
That is exactly what Wulfraat continues to make the effort to do. Emphasizing the choice to persevere, even when it feels impossible to wait out the storms that fall over your life. Appreciate the things that you can control in the moment.
“Get outside and appreciate the world you’ve been given. Don’t be scared to make a mistake that is going to lead you down a certain path of life, because that’s really what it is. Mistakes are what make you find your path.”
