Homeward Bound— a Personality Profile Kayla Jo Robyn was climbing out of the window of the Fulshear Ranch drug rehabilitation aftercare facility in Houston, Texas. The morning summer air was sticky and hot, and although she couldn’t see her hand waving in front of her, Robyn’s steps were hurried and sure, as she searched for the highway, carrying a duffel bag the height of her body, a guitar, 2 backpacks, a purse, and shoes tied onto an additional bag. Nowhere to go, and with no one to take her there, she walked for 3 miles before a man finally answered the door. Hi, she said, when a man opened the door, I’m Kayla, I was just on a road trip with my friends...and my boyfriend...he kicked me out...Could I use your phone? One white lie later, and 800 away miles from home, she found a temporary place to stay. Kayla Jo Robyn was 18 years old. Just less than a year earlier, she lived in Louisville. She played soccer for her school’s varsity team. She danced for hours at prom, and frequented the familiar Heine Brothers within walking distance from her house. She had a boyfriend, Sam, and she had friends for which she would do anything. “If ever I needed anything— money, or just someone to talk to, Kayla Jo was there,” said Emma Brown, a close friend of Robyn. “I was at a friend’s house once, out at La Grange. My car broke down, and I needed to get home, but it was really late. I called Kayla, and without a question, she just said, ‘I’m on my way.’ She drove halfway across Louisville to pick me up, only to turn around and take me 45 minutes to my house in the South End.” The roles were reversed, however, just two months later. After her boyfriend crashed her car, and her first police incident with minor drugs, Kayla was sent to live with her father in Missouri. In Missouri, every new friend that she made, every soccer game that she played as team captain, every school dance that attended, and every retail-chain coffee shop that she routinely visited only made her miss her parallel life in Louisville even more. Kayla Jo needed Louisville. She needed to get back. And that was why she called Sam to drive 400 miles to pick her up. “We came back to Louisville—leaving my dad and step mom with a simple note saying that I would not be back,” said Robyn. “I lived with Sam over the summer.” But summer at Sam’s was not what Robyn expected. “Things were pretty bad. I got deep into dealing and doing several types of drugs. I lost all my real friends, and Sam and I were constantly fighting—which just resulted in more drugs. I was visiting my mom one night, and she saw the rapid weight loss and my sunken eyes. I left when she asked me about it, but she called the police to report me as a runaway.” Robyn was arrested in Indiana that same night. After a cold and panicked night in an unfamiliar city, the state admitted Robyn to wilderness therapy. The next morning she boarded a plane with two other girls to Colorado, where she checked into Open Sky Wilderness Therapy. She was given just three sets of clothing— red t-shirts, khaki hiking shorts, and one pair of Crocs and Hiking boots.

Her luck was finally starting to change. “I remember my whole experience at open sky so well—it’s the best thing I’ll ever do. The thing that sticks out most to me though is an activity called night solos. We did solos every three weeks. Everyone hikes a mile away from each other, and camps alone for 3 days and nights, with no books or anything. You don’t talk to anyone the whole time. You start your own fire, cook your own food—everything. The last time I did solos, I was sitting and meditating, watching the sun go down, and I realized that I was a woman. I felt so beautiful and strong and happy, and I started crying, because I finally realized what I wanted out of life, and who I want to be, and who I’m capable of being. It changed my life and my perspective on everything I know. Open Sky was totally spiritual, and all about being unique and living “in the now,” and I agreed with everything they preached. I want to go back and work there some day, because what they do for people is incredible.” Robyn’s independence would soon be tested not long after graduation from Open Sky. After checking into Fulshear Ranch in Texas for aftercare, she decided that medicinal treatment was counter-productive, and no match for the spiritual treatment she received at Open Sky. And that was why on her 18th birthday, she “discharged” herself from Fulshear Ranch, and sat in the living room of a kind Texan stranger. Once again she felt a pull towards her hometown, and she begged a friend to buy her a greyhound ticket for a 36-hour ride back to Louisville, two days later. Now, Kayla Jo Robyn spends her time doing art, not drugs. After posting videos of herself singing and playing guitar on the Internet, she was contacted by a local record company to begin recording in a studio. All she has to do is “lay off the cigs.” “I grew up the perfect child—straight A's, captain of sports teams, best big sister, so polite, always doing the right thing,” said Robyn. “But I was never happy, and one day it finally clicked in that ‘hey, you're doing what they say will make you happy, but you're miserable.” So I just started doing the exact opposite. I had no respect for anyone, especially myself. I did things I promised myself I’d never do. I crossed lines I didn’t even know existed. Open Sky made me really look at myself and at the real problems—the ones that drove me to change so dramatically. I learned who I used to be, who I am, who I will be—I discovered what I believe, how I feel, and how to feel. “And even though a lot of people look at me and say ‘I’m sorry, I bet you hate your life,’ I laugh. Yea, it may seem like it sucks, and it does at times. I’ve lost my family, and I miss them more than anything. But I’ve really grown into myself and gained a confidence in what I can do. I figured out how to love unconditionally. I know how to forgive. I’ve experienced things as an 18 year old that a lot of people never get to experience. But I’m happy, because I know who I am.”