At Agorapulse, we've heard some extraordinary stories from people who live life at a deeper, inspirational level. Ingrid Ulrich’s story is one we want to share with you right now. https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/people-who-inspire-us-meet-ingrid-ulrich #agorapulse #ourinspiringpeople

1. People Who
Inspire Us:
Ingrid Ulrich
Domestic Abuse
Survivor, Cancer
Fighter & Adventurer
Extraordinaire

2. At Agorapulse, we’ve heard some
extraordinary stories from people
who live life at a deeper, inspirational
level. And we want to share them
with you.
In this new series, we share the
experiences of such people, one
narrative at a time. We’ll dig deep into
what inspires us about them, how
they overcame daunting challenges
that threatened to distract them from
their focus, and what they’ve learned
along their journeys.
Meet Ingrid Ulrich

3. As a girl, Ingrid Ulrich dreamed of fantastic
adventures and expeditions. Her imagination
ran along the paths of explorers, who were
her heroes.
But the dream of being an explorer felt too
big and out of reach for her. “I always
thought it was for others,” says Ingrid.
The word “adventure” and Ingrid weren’t
going to be linked together—yet. Her calling
to adventure and exploration was buried
inside her heart for a long time. And it
remained dormant within her for more than
a decade.

4. DOMESTIC ABUSE SURVIVOR
Dreaming of adventure is difficult when
one is just trying to survive life, day by day.
Ingrid’s life was whittled down to a
moment-by-moment survival.
Half-buried in a marriage to a violent man,
Ingrid had no confidence, no belief in her
own physical strength, only a threadbare
sense of self-worth.
During this already difficult time, Ingrid
had a violent fall off a horse and found
herself confined to a wheelchair.

5. However, despite all these seemingly
overwhelming challenges, she found her
inner strength and spirit of
perseverance.
“The horse fall, a year in a wheelchair,
and the doubt of not being able to walk
normally allowed me to develop the
motto of: never, never give up.”
An economics management teacher at a
vocational high school, Ingrid soon
added a new description for how she
saw herself: a solo athlete.

6. During this already difficult time, Ingrid
had a violent fall off a horse and found
herself confined to a wheelchair.Not only did Ingrid learn to walk
normally, but she also walked away from
a decade-long abusive relationship.
Her work soon included making time to
help other women in abusive
relationships and showing them how to
escape the horror of domestic abuse and
establish good, healthy lives for
themselves and their children.
Ingrid had learned this lesson for herself:
“It was during my solo expeditions that I
regained my confidence. I had to rely on
myself, whether it was at sea, in the
forest, or at the top of a mountain.”

7. CANCER FIGHTER
Just as Ingrid’s adventurous life was
unfurling, she developed cancer. Once more,
the focus became survival. Radiation,
chemotherapy, hair loss, breast ablation, all
had to be endured.
But the woman who now faced cancer had
endured hardship and knew her inner
strength and how to cope, mentally and
physically, with this battle.
“I’ve come back even stronger and even more
determined to realize my dreams,” Ingrid
says. “Even the wildest dreams.”

8. ADVENTURER
Ingrid’s scrappiness, fighting spirit, and
strength would not let her give up on her
dreams of adventure.
“Going on an adventure is a concentrate of
emotion,” Ingrid says. “There is fear,
disappointment, joy, euphoria, hope, and
happiness with an overdrive intensity. It
teaches how to handle mistakes as
inevitable elements of any trajectory and
has sharpened its sense of priorities. Every
day we learn something.”
And so, she still embarks on explorations,
despite all (perhaps even because of all)
she endured.

9. “What I have lived allowed me to
become who I am today and finally …
myself,” Ingrid says.
“Sometimes, I even think that I was
lucky to have lived this life. Otherwise,
I might have waited for my life to
pass, telling myself that I was not able
to realize my dreams.”
Ingrid’s adventures have included:
● Crossing the Aegean Sea and
the Dodecanese islands in SUP
(stand up paddleboard)
● Crossing the Mediterranean in
SUP
● Med’Ocean Challenge in SUP

11. “What fascinates me in nature is that, by
such surprises, it makes you feel its strength,
its ability to dominate us and our
insignificance in the face of a hostile
environment,” Ingrid writes on her blog.
“Nature forces us to be humble, to admit
that we cannot always control it, despite our
efforts. It is when the conditions become
complicated that the notion of perseverance
and trust takes on their full value.
“During an adventure, when we are forced
to spend time with ourselves, we never
come back the same,” Ingrid explains. “After
each adventure, I came back a little happier
to live with myself and with others.”

12. Gone Adventuring
Ingrid’s current adventure has taken
her to the “wildest and most hostile
parts of the planet.”
Her destination: Ilulissat, Greenland.
“On the ice floe and in the middle of
the icebergs, I will reach the fishing
hunters’ village of Oquaatsut, before
rowing towards the Bay of Quervain,
where [there’s] the hut of the first
polar expeditions of Paul Emile Victor,”
Ingrid said in a recent interview.

13. Find out more about Ingrid’s current
adventure, her challenges, and reflections
in this series of articles, starting in
mid-April.
Meanwhile, Ingrid’s adventuring in
Greenland, embracing life, overcoming
challenges, and reflecting on it all during
the quiet moments.
Ingrid’s one of Agorapulse’s
inspirations—and proof that you don’t
need a ton of money to do amazing things.
You just need a dream, a plan for that
dream, and good old scrappiness, all traits
that Ingrid has (and that this bootstrapped
start-up admires).