After graduating from college I didn’t have much time to wonder what I was going to do. I joined AmeriCorps NCCC in January 2006 and stayed with that program for two years. I worked hard and did a lot of productive work, but I also put off the “real world” for an extra two years. As a Corps Member I didn’t have to think about where I wanted to be or how to get there, I knew my Team Leader would tell me what I needed to do.

As a Team Leader I had a lot more responsibility, both to the program and to my Corps Members. People counted on me to be in a particular place and, to my disappointment in a way, when I didn’t go to work, things didn’t run smoothly. After AmeriCorps I was a little freaked out. For a short period of time, I had nowhere I had to be and nothing I had to do.

A year and a half and a half dozen jobs later, the same thought is running through my head. But instead of it making me anxious to find a permanent place somewhere, it is making me anxious to leave. I want to go on adventures. On a daily basis I reevaluate why I’m here. I already quit my second job, now I’m wondering if I can quit my primary one for up to a month before I move on to a job I am actually excited about. Everyday the dream of leaving seems more and more attainable.

That second job was at a retail outlet, folding clothes and selling sweaters for $11 an hour, between 15 and 20 hours a week. Over the holidays I worked everyday, I need the money and the mountain was crowded anyway, so why not? But I have this annoying ability to be able to do mundane work well, and they wanted me to stay. I did, but now I’ve spent almost four months in Colorado’s high country and been on the mountain 5 times. After yesterday’s run at least the average was more than once a month.

A hefty tax return made my decision for me, I have to quit the second job. So I’ll have to give up… well, nothing. I didn’t have enough time to spend any of the money I was making. Ok, I’ll put off the iPhone purchase for a few months, but it’s not exactly a hardship considering I will have three days off a week to visit all the places I tell people about. I can visit the hot springs, I can snowshoe a thirteener (fourteener even?), I can perfect linking heel and toe edge turns in Vail, Beaver Creek, Breck or even right here in Keystone! At the low cost of $150 a week and my unhappiness.

How dare you let your recent bong rip create such a ‘rip’ in the eyes of all Americans who look up to you. Who would’ve thought that your recreational activity of choice has recently created as much buzz as Michelle Obama’s attire. I mean, with the nation in a recession, I guess every one has more interest in what you do with your spare time than their work. And, instead of wasting thousands of dollars in Las Vegas and partying with the Bunnies all night long, why don’t you get a real job, Mr. Gold-Record Breaker. Didn’t you know that when you won you would immediately be thrust into the spotlight and become a role model for millions of people whom you’ve never met? Come on, Michael, grow up already, will you? You are 23 so now get back to the pool and forget about your adolescence.

Sincerely,

A Retired Kellogg’s Diner

Now…

Hello, American public;

Isn’t there anything else better on which to report, or even to read, than some 23-year-old filling his lungs full of smoke? If this kid wants to take a bong rip, so be it. The only thing maybe we should stress as a society is to make sure to cover your tracks and not be stupid enough to let someone take a picture of you.

If you’re trying to tell me that The Marijuana is cause for the detoriation of one of the most popular athletes in history, you should really get your ideals straight. And if you are sitting in your cozy Lazy Boy tearing down Phelps, maybe you should think back to the time when you took a ripper. If you’re shaking your head saying you never inhaled, slap your nasty face with your mother’s hand.

Thank you,

Your Friendly Fellow Society Member

The opinion I always have, which I feel blossomed in me at birth, is this:

Does life have to follow a plan?

Two of my four parents believe that I am wasting my time – and my life, I’m sure they really want to say – because my lifestyle isn’t the natural progression of the trail map people call Life. Let’s just say I’ve had some tangents.

Yes, I graduated from a great school in four years, but four years instead of three because I simply did not want to leave college and enter The Real World. (P.S. I hate you, MTV, because that shit is NOT the real world.) I got a real job, which I quit seven months later because I was bored and didn’t want to ease into a path where I moved back home, got a good job, and, well, retired 50 years later. Moved to NY because I was convinced that Conde Nast would give me a job, which they didn’t because I couldn’t even get through the main lobby, so then retreated back to Florida with pennies in my bank account. I was jobless for a couple of months and used my time to read great books, drink wine and appreciate the sun on my skin – all things I knew would soon be ripped from me once I was hired somewhere (anywhere). Got another real job, but after only six months there (pattern, anyone?) my boyfriend got a job in Colorado and so we packed up my car and drove semi-cross country to the place I now call “my apartment.” It’s been four months.

Yes, maybe it would’ve been easier if I suffered through my first job and climbed my way up through the corporate ladder, but what if that’s not me? Why are kids pushed into getting a “good job” right out of college? Why do you have to stay with one company for your entire working life just so you can have a fat going away party and a slice of your favorite cake? Why are we required to work 40 hours a week? HOW COME NO ONE PUSHES YOU TO TRAVEL THE WORLD, WRITE A BOOK, TRY A MILLION JOBS BEFORE YOU PICK A CAREER?

In a sense: What is the big fucking rush?

My perfect job is to travel the world, eat amazing food, take glorious pictures, write goosepimple-inducing stories, meet fantastic people who can better my life, and somehow get paid to do so. That would not be a job. That would be a fantasy come true. And it wouldn’t require me to settle down in one town and work  just so I can save money for when I am lucky enough to get my two-week vacation.

So, now where. That is my next big decision. It will most certainly not be making sure I have appropriate close-toed shoes to wear with my black suit at, god forbid, my next job interview.

For most of the past 3 years, I did not have easy access to the internet, and often had minimal cell phone service. I have been focused on my own little world because of what I thought were influences outside of my control. I now have an apartment that came with cable television and I have job that puts me in front of the internet for 10 hours a day, yet I am still no more informed than when I was living at the James Park cabin up near the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

By almost total coincidence, I couldn’t even tune into the most historic of recent events, the inauguration of President Obama. In the middle of my oh-so-connected world (I even have a blackberry now), I was sailing in the backcountry of Florida Bay as a part of training for my job with Outward Bound. Someone even brought small radios so each boat could listen to the address. About the time the festivities were starting, we started to head up a narrow channel. The wind shifted and we found we couldn’t sail through the channel, but making the decision too late to effectively row through. I heard the phrase “winter of hardship” while six of us were trying to row off the flat we’d laid onto a half dozen times already. We rowed only to slow our backward movement, finally realizing we needed to find another way around when the audience was applauding what I have heard was an excellent speech.

Part of my goal for starting this blog is to just have a reason to become more informed and to take the time to filter the massive amount of information on the web, to become as much a part of the conversation out in the world as the one constantly going on in my head. So here’s to putting myself out there and seeing if anyone will listen.