About

Meet Pat Wetzel

Author, Host and Creator of Bump In The Road

Pat Wetzel, Storyteller, Author, Host and Creator of Bump In The Road

I am endlessly curious about how people navigate life’s bumps. What are the traits that make them resilient? How do they muster the courage to move forward? What guides them?

I’ve had more than a few life bumps. After graduating from Wharton Business School, I was fortunate to land a job in the bond market, and later in international strategic planning. Then I hit a bump that turned my world upside down.

A rare neurologic disease, myasthenia gravis which caused extreme muscle weakness and fatigue, changed the course of my life. Where I had been independent, I was now dependent. Where I was once defined by my job and future, I struggled to figure out who I was. Everything that had defined me was gone.

From there came a divorce that left me truly reeling. Yet again, I had to reconstruct my very identity. That part of my life was very difficult. I characterize it as living a life wish/death wish existence.

While my heart was dealing with rejection, and my physical body was dealing with disease and limitation, my soul craved freedom and adventure.

Obviously the life wish won. And my will to LIVE, to truly live, happened when I stumbled into the sport of soaring, flying high tech motorless aircraft. Soaring rocked my world. It changed my perception of reality as I rode the invisible energy of the sky to navigate increasingly complex flights. I soared long distances down mountain ridges and flew to over 30,000 feet. This is a short video that will give you a sense of this amazing sport:

From this esoteric sport, I learned many things, including a deep appreciation for the power of nature and the humility that goes with it. There are many stories to tell, some of which appear in my book: Bump In The Road: Stories of Courage, Hope and Resilience.

But there’s more to my story. I would go on to navigate six years of “incurable” cancer and the psychological, social, financial, and spiritual lessons that came with it. I would experience a heartbreaking business betrayal that destroyed my livelihood and led me to sell my house, to travel, seeking some way to make sense of it all.

Throughout all my bumps in the road,  I struggled. But somewhere from deep inside me I seemed to muster the will to restart my life each time. And I wondered: How did other people navigate such bumps in the road? And what might I learn from them?

And so, the seeds for the podcast and books series were planted and are coming to fruition.

Years of listening to my podcast guests have given me a thirty-thousand-foot view of the common elements of all their stories: traits of courage, hope, resilience, and more.

How do you develop such traits? How do you tune them? And most of all, how can we learn to create an empowered and meaningful life for ourselves?

Many of us struggle with meaning and direction in our lives.

I have, and I know I am not alone.

What can we learn from each other’s stories?

Through my travels, I’ve become passionate about stories that can touch our souls and change our lives. Stories about life’s bumps; stories about struggle; and most of all stories about the wisdom that comes from it all.

Why stories? Sometimes you need to hear someone else’s story to see your own. Through stories, we create a moment of connection, and in that moment, we are one.  We feel our shared energy of understanding, compassion, and perhaps wisdom. It is a moment that can change us.

Come share the stories of my guests, because their story is your story. Their hurdles are yours. And their wisdom and insight can be yours too.

You can learn more about me in the Media section of this website.

Join The Adventure

Live and learn through the power of story.