After months of stasis, things are finally starting to come alive again. And it’s not just the winter, which felt shorter than usual – it’s been rare that I’ve worn a coat in the last two weeks – but after a dearth of work, a dearth of purpose, things are finally picking back up on the life front.
The most pressing of the issues at the moment is moving – while we’re just moving across the courtyard of our current apartment complex, since we decided not to renew our lease in this particular apartment for another year, moving is a pain at best, a struggle at worst. We’ve got some overlap between the old place and the new place, which is nice, but it sucks in that we’re moving to an upstairs apartment, and that we’re just going to end up moving out at the end of next month.
What doesn’t suck is the reason for the second move: Spesh and I are going to be the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers for the East Central region of the country. Said region includes, in no particular order, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Our mission, as we have chosen to accept it, is to travel this region for a year, teaching kids and adults about Leave No Trace ethics.
It’s pretty rad, given that I get to basically go on a year-long road trip all over the Midwest – where I grew up – and get to know the area in relation to its wild spaces. It’s also rad because Spesh has never really been to that part of the country, so I’ll get to see it through my adjusted viewpoint and his brand-spanking-new impressions. I’m looking forward to nearly 300 nights of camping and teaching folks how to protect our wild spaces and, hopefully, discovering excellent places that I didn’t even know existed.
We just got the contract back, all signed and official, and I’m still reeling. There’s sO MUCH TO BE DONE before we report for training at the end of April. I’m a list maker, and every spare piece of paper close at hand has become a list; the apartment is covered in so many lists, with so many boxes that remain unchecked despite the progress I’m making. I think I’m adulting harder than I’ve ever adulted in my life. But it’s all a matter of remaining focused; the more things I check off, the closer I am to combining all the things I love – teaching, wandering, and wilderness – into the experience of a lifetime.
Brown Girl on the NST 
Where will your schedule for the LNT training be posted? I live in the deep south and would love to catch you when you come through. I have followed you since the CDT.
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The schedule is changing all the time right now; I’ll post it when things get a little more settled. We don’t quite have anything in the deep south yet, but I’m hoping that changes!
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Sounds wonderful.
This move sequence gives you an opportunity to divest yourself of some items, as in… is this thing worth hauling upstairs, is it worth storing?
Sounds like a super fun job!!!
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Oh wow, that is so cool! Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for you and Spesh! So happy for you, and looking forward to following along on your journey!
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Thanks! Pretty stoked when I get the chance to breathe. 😉
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Darn – no Texas stop? That’s too bad – there’s a lot of great spaces to see here and a lot of people that don’t know (or won’t) take care of things. Have to get them young to teach respect for nature.
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Texas isn’t technically in our region, though that doesn’t rule out us going there. We’ll be in both North Dakota and Virginia per the current schedule.
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Cool – Big Bend is a great place.
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congratulations on adulting-everytime I came off a long hike I went back to work as a nurse-none of the other nurses I worked with “got” me but I was out there having great adventures-let’s hear it for Subaru(I live in CO so of course I drive one) and LNT
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I know a ton of nurses who do the same thing! Are you coming to the ALDHA-West Rockies Ruck next weekend in Golden?
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And you know KNOW that a year like that will lead to the connections to your ever after! So stoked for you guys!
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That sounds great! You go girl.
I’m a list-maker too, especially when I get busy and stressed. It’s a great (the only?) way to make sure everything is accounted for.
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What a dream job. Enjoy. Can’t wait to hear about it. Like someone suggested above – check out Minimiism and lose the excess stuff.
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