Growing up in Tahoe
Our children. They leave us. Head off to college and only return to visit occasionally to marvel at the beauty of their childhood home.
I wrote in Moonshine Ink about this trend several years ago when my daughter joined her North Tahoe High School graduating class in their journeys to Santa Barbara, L.A., and San Diego. After being raised in the snow, they find new homes and careers at beaches, in big cities, and in the suburbs. There are, however, a few of our progeny who go off to the coast, find their path in life, and return to the mountains to apply their training to the benefit of our community. One of these is Lauren Corda, who just opened her acupuncture business in Tahoe and Truckee.
Corda was born in Truckee in 1985 and attended Tahoe Community Nursery School, Tahoe Lake Elementary, and North Tahoe High School. Her path to acupuncture began at the age of eight when, after years of debilitating headaches, her parents took her to Stephen Barr, a local acupuncturist. After a few treatments her headaches abated and she told her dad that someday she wanted to be an acupuncturist. But as life went on, that proclamation slipped from her mind and by the age of 16 she just wanted to get out of Tahoe. Corda graduated early and followed her big sister to Santa Barbara City College. Like many of us, at that point she really had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. She thought she wanted to study radiology, but then decided she didn’t like Western medicine. At a Christmas party, she met a friend who was excited about going to school to become an acupuncturist and suddenly her childhood dream resurfaced. ‘I knew it was meant to be,’ Corda said. She applied and was accepted to an acupuncture school in Santa Barbara.
As is usually the case in life, there were still a few more twists in Corda’s story. She moved farther south to attend the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego. Four years later she obtained her masters in traditional Oriental medicine and began an internship with her mentor, Dong-phuong Nguyen, a master of Chinese medicine, through which she specialized in women’s health.
Training to become an acupuncturist is an incredibly complicated process that combines knowledge of the body, energy pathways, Eastern medicine, exercise, nutrition, and the use of herbs. Corda soaked it up and confirmed that this is where she belonged in life. But she still confronted one big problem: The degree is just the first step. The next step is to pass the incredibly challenging California Acupuncture Licensing Exam. And Corda has a mind for healing, not for taking tests. The first time she took it she failed, and had to wait six months to take it again. Continuing to assist her mentor in San Diego she wondered when she would be able to apply the skills that she had learned. Finally, Nguyen told Corda that if she wanted to pass the test she needed the Dragon energy she would find in Tahoe. So she returned to the cold of her mountains, surrounded by the warmth of hometown and family, and passed her test in 2010.
Now Corda treats people at the Tahoe Yoga and Wellness Center in Truckee and is quickly developing a following. Snowboarder Alison Hardy, who faces ankle and knee pain, says of Corda, ‘I have had acupuncture by a few people. She is very understanding and knows the energy and the human body very well. The first few days after I see her are amazing. I now see her regularly and it helps my knee and ankle a lot.’
I needed to find out for myself, so I went under the needles and had Corda give me the treatment. Corda says that acupuncture works by finding where energy is weakest and trying to create a balance. ‘Pain is caused by stagnation. When there is free flow, you are free of pain,’ she said. Super-thin needles are inserted at key energy points in your body to unblock the stagnation. She was gentle to this needle newbie, and the process was actually quite relaxing. It was like lying in savasana for 45 minutes with an occasional twitch or tweak coming from a needle, but no pain. I was surprised at the finish to hear that she had inserted 16 needles. When it was over, I did feel a bit more spacey and light-headed than usual, which is saying something, but Corda said that was a normal part of the process.
We are sad to see our best and brightest graduates leave Tahoe, but a few somehow twist and turn their way back to their childhood homes. Once they have spent a few years in the real world, they remember how lucky they were to grow up in paradise, and use Tahoe’s Dragon energy to find a niche for themselves in the mountains.
Corda can be reached at Tahoe Yoga and Wellness Center, 10770 Donner Pass Road, Suite 104, (530) 550-8333, tahoeyoga.com.
~ In the typical interconnectedness that is Tahoe, Tim Hauserman did much of the research for his guidebook, ‘The Official Guide to the Tahoe Rim Trail,’ while hiking the trail with Corda’s mother, Jan. Comment on this column online, visit moonshineink.com.
