Oh, The Places You'll Go

wan·der·er

/ˈwändərər/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. a person who travels aimlessly; a traveler.

In my lifetime I have found myself in many different locations. I've lived in 13 different places, 8 different states, worked at 14 jobs and moved back and forth more times than I can remember. I've lived on the coast of Florida and spent a summer following the trails of Alaska. I've moved from the desert of Colorado to the mountains of New Hampshire. I've had jobs at the sites of the beginning and the end of the Revolutionary War. I've worked at the longest cave in the world and walked the beaches of a few of the remote islands of the Kodiak Archipelago. 

I've spent countless long days building trails with only hand tools and muscle. I've hiked miles to get to job sites, through all kinds of weather. I've had jobs ranging from teaching to maintenance, from cleaning beaches to preparing food. I've rarely known what I where I would be headed for my next job or what sort of work I would be doing. Many times I'd wake up not even knowing what sort of work the day ahead would bring. 

I've never shied away from hard work. I've accepted each new challenge and did my best to make the most of even my least favorite jobs. Since I started travelling for work my shortest position has been 3 months of my longest 10 months, until I found myself at my current job. Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia I've found myself facing a new situation. For the first time in my adult life I'm living and working at a place that I can't picture myself leaving, with people whose lives I want to be a part of. I've loved places I've been before and dream of returning to. I've worked with people that I've been heartbroken to leave. But here I've found a new type of family. For the first time in a long time I've put down roots.

I've been working at Camp Blue Ridge in Montebello Virginia for over a year now. I've always had a special place in my heart for Virginia. My Granny and Pappy grew up there and I spent many summers of my youth exploring it's nature. My travels brought me to work in Virginia once before but now it truly feels like home.