For the typical 9 to 5’er, mention of (or ruminations upon) early morning wake-ups likely conjures images of slammed snooze buttons, traffic jams, cubicles, invigorating café imparted creativity crests and the corresponding doom of the 10 o’clock caffeine depletion nosedive. In a desperate attempt to avoid these pitfalls upon graduating college in the spring, I applied and was accepted to MCC. Since then, I have yet to be disappointed by anything close to a sense of impending workplace monotony upon waking. Sure, days working trail crew are often (always?) irregular and tough, leaving the crew satisfied but depleted by bedtime and simultaneously relishing in but also dreading the process of re-depletion upon arising each morning. For those unfamiliar with weeks filled up with pulaski swinging and hiking up, down and all over with 45 lb. packs, rockbars, chainsaws, pots, pans, filters, wool sweaters and melons (I don’t get it either, my crewmates are odd ducks) while subsiding on kilos of PB&J, powdered milk and Clif Bars, there is very much a bittersweet, love-hate, “why the heck am I here?” conflict going through one’s head upon hearing the wake up call at 6 a.m. on the fifth 10-hour manual labor day of eight. Decidedly, there is rarely dullness of internal dialogue upon waking but there is always realization of the challenges and excitement that each day is sure to bring.
Lying in my tent, I’m somewhere between dreaming and the real world. Someone is trying to stir me but I’m not sure from which. It takes of few seconds to transition out of the haze of sleep. Some one is trying to wake me up. “Crap…..it’s early.” I say in my head, my back in knots from the day before and not quite yet realizing where I am. “Man, this is terrible.” I say to myself, still lost and certainly put off but the notion of getting out of bed to take on the day. At first, with my eyes still closed I’m deeply dejected and then, an epiphany, a beacon of light. “This waking up thing isn’t so bad. I’m going to microwave oatmeal!!!” Glorious. I can handle it. Today is going to be a great day. And then I open my eyes and “DOH!”, it all hits me. I’m in a tent and not a bed. It’s very cold and there is a rock projecting into my back from under my Thermarest. This means dirt, sweat, gradients and Carhartts, not Saturday morning cartoons, a bike ride and 60 second Quaker Instant Oats. This is where the challenge begins and continues, thematically throughout the day. Peeved for a moment, I pull my sleeping bag over my head and curse. But this doesn’t last. “Wait a minute,” I tell myself, “I’m getting paid to save the planet, play outside and doing crazy, absurd things ALL DAY.” Smiling widely to myself, I roll over. Happier than a pig in mud, I grab my work pants in the dark. They’re near frozen solid. After a brief struggle there, I get out of my tent and hear a very loud crash across camp and that carries into a soon-to-be sun filled valley to my left. Still more asleep than awake and not quite getting what just occurred, I look up and see Matt Ball a few yards across camp standing by his tent. Not quite as drowsy and dazed as I am, he got it. He shrugs, “bear,” smiles, and our day goes from there.
It is ceaseless experiences like this that make the question of “why the heck am I here?” irrelevant in my mind and, I think, in those of many others. To those who would ask – you don’t get to shower for how long?, isn’t it hard?, what are you going to do with that?, why don’t you use your education to get a ‘real’ job?, or you make what to do that!?!?? – we should remember that this experiences is, in part, about mindfully taking up and enduring instead of avoiding hardships in our quests to become stronger individuals. It is also about service - caring for the people places and things around us. It’s about sacrifice - striving for more in some areas of life but settling for less in others, accepting being poor in some ways but rich in others. It’s about learning about ourselves and our environment, building philosophies to live by, making friends, getting things done and leaving the things around us better than when we got there. From knowing many of my fellow co-workers and the perspective of my tent at 6 a.m. on day five of eight, I think we’re all getting there. Best wishes MCC. Keep it up.
Yeeeehaw!
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