Oh the place you go!

If you had asked me 5 years ago where I would be I would have said "Working in the Park Service". I did too for two years but last year after getting an email from my boss regarding my paperwork to stay I asked myself, "Do I still want to do this." See to stay in the service I had to be in school. The thing was I hated the program I was in. I just wanted to be a full time ranger but getting in through the hoops was like pulling teeth, painful. I had applied to seasonal and full time positions across the eastern coast and only heard back from 1 out of 50 with "no". In my own park I was temporary seasonal and I felt stuck. I wasn't going anywhere, wasn't sleeping, wasn't making any connections and so when I ask "do I still want to do this?" I knew I had my answer, "No." That night I slept better than I had in four months.

I already had a job interview lined up doing lord knew what. The place I applied to hadn't even had job openings, I applied hoping they would recognize I had a unique set of skills. I had applied to 20 other museums in the New England area but this was the only one that wanted an interview. So after signing the papers, saying goodbye and packing what I could in my blazer, I drove North not knowing what the future held. Now I know, I work in my field,  in a museum as an interpreter, cook, garden, sewer, and now I bake on top of that.

As I have been training for the baker job the last few weeks it has been on my mind "this isn't what I thought my future held." I am pretty sure my Grandpa and Grandma K are quiet enjoying watching their little girly girl, who made Grandpa take the fish off the hooks cause she hated that they were slimy, is now ankle deep in goat, chicken and cow dung, taking meat off of fish heads and elbow deep in bread dough. It makes me think though about all of my relatives who took those leaps.

Driving back to New England was the biggest risk I had taken in four years. I had no boyfriend,  no job, barely any money, barely a plan B. I was running on faith. My Great Grandma and Grandpa N had made those same leaps in 1911 and 1921 coming from Sweden. My Great Great Grandma B made a similar leap in the 1880s.  He husband dead from typhoid fever a new born son and she headed back to Burma to continue her mission work. In 1820 and 1620 I had relatives arrive here. Both had previously been stranded on islands, both named Stephen one from Ireland, one London, England and both like to cause trouble.  All took leaps. Risked what they knew for what was unknown. In some ways their fortune proved favorable in others fatal. Yet they risked the unknown anyways.

It is interesting.  We are asked in interviews were we see ourselves in five years. Some know,  some don't, I think I answered with, "hopefully still where I belong, New England."

Left to right my Uncle Harold, Great Grandma N, Grandma K (standing), Aunt Anna, Great Grandp N. 1927. The only one still living is Harold.