A Ranger At Last

Deciding to apply for a job as a ranger was a big choice. It would be my first real job and it would also be taking up my last summer before college. I wouldn't be able to play with friends as much and would have to be willing to miss some family vacation time. But truely, I knew it was what I wanted and I knew it would be worth it a hundred times over for my career.

However, around the time I should have been applying, I was preoccupied with a major surgery. In the end of Decemember, 2009 I had maxiofaciall surgery. My jaw hadn't grown in correctly and my teeth didn't touch, my lower teeth were laying down on their sides to try to balance my underbite, cartilage was growing on my nose and chin to counter act the strains of a unbalanced jaw. So it needed to be taken care of and there is a prime age where you have completely stopped growing, but all the bones in your face haven't completely settled. So I spent three days in the hospital after a six and a half hours surgery and couldn't eat solid foods or open my mouth for six to eight weeks. So you can see why applying for a summer job didn't make my to do list. That picture is a x-ray of my face. The dots and lines are screws and small metal plates. I have twenty-seven screws and six metal plates and one little twist tie (you can see it in my chin).

I don't know if the difference looks very big to you, but it certainly was to me! Especially they way I smile is different.

Anyways, that is beside the point except for explaining why I didn't apply for the job when I should have. About mid-March, I emailed Timp Caves and explained my situation a little and asked if there was any way I could still apply. Mike Gosse said that they had just about finished all the hiring they were going to do, but he would still let me have a phone interview with him and Karissa DeCarlo. They would be making the final decisions that weekend. I had prayed and prayed for this job and had I waited one more week, I probably would have missed the chance entirely.

It Unfolds

Then, in 2008, when I was just sixteen, I had my first real rangering experience. By this time, my whole family was very aware of my ambitions. (As illustrated in the copious park ranger merchandise, books, and comments directed toward me). There happened to be a National Monument just down the street from us, Timpanogos Caves National Monument. That year, in the early spring, my forward Father decided to invite himself up to the Administration Office and asked what a kid in my situation could do to be involved with the park. They told him about the B.A.T.S. program (Behind a Tour Specialst). It was for youth fourteen and older to volunteer in the park on cave tours. As touching and breaking formations was one of the foremost troubles the cave combatted, having someone, even a teenager, in uniform, with a flashlight, following behind the tour helped keep everyone together and discouraged possible wrong doers.

And so my involvment with the National Park System began.I started volunteering that summer and I knew I was in the right place. I know it sounds cheesy to say I had found my calling in life, but it is truly the most appropriate term. It is one thing to read about something in a book and like it, but an entirely different matter to experience it and love it even more.

I spent two summers as a volunteer and accumulated over one hundred hours. By the end of the summers I would start to get a little tired of the tours. That is why getting involved in what you like is so important! It really helped me to start to think about what kept me interested and what direction I should start to push this career in. I also realized I knew so little about how the National Park Service really worked, and this was a good way to get a feel for the system.

Before Hand

I don't know exactly when I started to seriously consider being a Park Ranger. It was before I moved to Utah in 2004 though. My first experience with a National Park that I can remember is flying to Yellowstone one winter with my family when I was eleven or twelve. It was a remarkable venture to me. Everything looks different in the snow. Even the little airpot in Wyoming was new. I remember getting off the plan and walking beneath an arch way made of antles. Fingers and toes were numb for most the trip, but that only made warming huts and hot chocolate all the sweeter. I have stayed in some beautiful hotels all over the world, but the little cabins we had at Yellowstone left an impression.

I believe it was on that trip that I got a book that would change my life! Park Ranger: True Stories From a Ranger's Career in America's National Parks by Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham. (Quite a long title!) Nancy had chronicled many of her experiences working as a Park Ranger. Initially it just sparked my interest. As a ranger, she was able to experience many noble professions: preservation, law enforcement, fire fighting, first responder to name a few. I felt so impressed by her life! The time she spent each day at work was time spent benefitting people and nature. The more I thought about it, the more I considered it as an actual career. It made me realize that park rangering isn't just putting around parks and reciting memorized tours, it is making a difference.

Previously,I had considered careers such as psychology, business, mathematics. Rangering has an almost comical connotation, and I think I liked the shock value. When I would first tell people that I wanted to be a Park Ranger, I think it took them a minute to realize I was serious. However, the more I looked into it as a viable option, the more realistic it became. Those other careers (aside from psychology) dealt with such petty things. Well, petty to me. Economy, money, business...they are all so fleeting. Our planet is forever older and forever longer than any one of us. Working with, and for, the Earth is an infinite calling with rewards deeper than any monetary oriented career.

After moving to Utah in 2004, my family spent more time exploring our American West, rather than the world. We went to the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Zions, Bryce Canyon, Arches and Goblin Valley. These trips were memorable to me, especially as I had little experience in the Great Outdoors. There were so many marvels out there that I was missing out on.

So it was time to pursue the dream!

Realized

I realized that my whole future is unfolding before my eyes and I am doing nothing to chronicle it. If I am not taking the time to record it, I am not taking to the time to understand it. This blog will be wholly dedicated to my involvement in the National Park Service and all the pursuits entailed. I think I will just keep it for myself and maybe let someone read it one day.

I hope one day I can read this and better realize why I am doing whatever I am doing, or perhaps why I should not be doing whatever I am doing. If I am getting bogged down or discouraged--perhaps this can help remind me.

For it is expedient that I, the Lord,
should make every man accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings,
which I have made and prepared for my creatures
D&C 104:13