If I'm going to be working my ass off, I want to be working my ass off for something I really care about. It's a great feeling to love what one does for work. Not many people can find their passion to magically link up with their career. I tell people, it took me a while to get to where I am today. It was not an easy road. I started on one path of dreams and that path had many speed bumps, trials and errors, and eventually a dead end with a broken heart of one dream. Yet, I continued to find a little path and that path got wider and wider and has brought me to the here and now.Being a Park Ranger can be glamorized of course, as articles are written about "Dream Jobs Working Outdoors" etc. But there is always more to the puzzle. 15 mile day hikes, blisters, sun burns, multiple bug bites, dangerous terrain, visitors that don't treat the land with respect, sore muscles, low pay, carrying packs bigger than you, wild wildlife, dangerous weather, never ending paperwork, bureaucracy, red tape, injuries, being away from friends and family, isolation....the list can continue.
BUT, at the end of the day, my body is exhausted from the physically demanding work. My mind is just tired. My hands are dirty from the real grit of the Earth, OUR Earth. My feet hurt worse than ever, as they've been walking all over the wilderness. Blessed be I be walking on the Earth instead of man made concrete jungles. My effort to make a positive impact and to help protect wilderness areas is all worth it. And it is even better when we have a Ranger Patrol Cabin to sleep in that evening. You feel good. You feel connected in that cabin, the cabin that was built in the 1930s by fellow former Rangers that had the same gusto to do this type of work.
