About a year ago I started contemplating life after Echo Hill. The very thought brought a feeling of dread, anxiety, and occasional bouts of nausea and the shakes. This world here on the Chesapeake Bay in between the Chester and Sassafras Rivers has provided me a time of ignorant bliss, unforgettable memories, and a cluster of friends, now family that I will keep with me always. Since March 2008 I've been a Naturalist/Outdoor Educator for Echo Hill Outdoor School here in Kent County. It's one of those jobs that people ask of you, "Wow, how did you land that?" and "What do you do exactly?" I have this job because apparently I'm one of those special types of people that can work with whatever you've got and make anything happen, and I do kinda what I and the kids want.
I technically live w/ 20 people, who've been changing for the past 2+ years, but hell, when you really don't get to see other people 5 days a week, you get to know each other WELL. We're family. I didn't get the dorm experience in college and I now realize the dude upstairs has arranged for me to make up for that.
There are many reasons why I started thinking about leaving here. I'm still loving it and I want to leave while I do, not when I'm bitter and tired. I want to miss this place like I missed my childhood home going away to college. All the while I'm aching for the unknown, a challenge, and to get the hell out of Dodge for a bit.
And then I started looking, and looking, and applying. Good thing is there were no "You aren't qualified for this position." Tons of no responses, which I chose to think of those as "not worthies." Was it destiny that I found, got accepted and am now on my way to a small school in the hills of Central Scotland? Or that it was the ONLY ONE I got accepted to? Hmmm.
Well, whatever it is, thank goodness.
Come the first week of August, I will be in a "Coworker", doing what? Not really sure. Not really getting paid much, but it seems that I'll be very well taken care of. I've thought to myself, if people get paid next to nothing, live in the jungles and avoid deathly parasites on a daily basis I think I can manage to get by for a year in Scotland with enough change to buy that great shirt and a few beers every now and then. Plus, there HAS to be Hairy Cows abound somewhere close by. That's entertainment enough.
So this blog is here to chronicle this 'next big step' in the game of life. Come along, I'm sure there's going to be some crazy tales and great one-liners,and maybe something embarassing too.
