To my disdain in college, I was required to take a number of business related courses due to my choice of major. Several times, in classes ranging from microeconomics to accounting, the concept of ROI value, or return on investment, was discussed. In its basest terms, ROI calculates how much one makes back from an initial buy in amount.
You may be asking yourself, how the hell does this relate to MCC?! We swing pick mattocks, get dirty, all while living the lifestyle of a nomad all summer long maintaining trails and getting awesome t-shirt tan lines, and then wrap up our term of service.
Well, I’d like to consider my MCC experience on the whole as an example (though it’s still underway). After a rough layoff in early 2009 and faced with the perspective of joblessness during economic hard times, I invested many hours researching potential job leads on the internet. After filling out an application for the MCC, and taking about 30 minutes of my time for a phone interview, I was hired! The time investment wasn’t all that rough - certainly not as daunting as the financial investment in gearing up for what would be an amazing season. For someone still making car and rent payments at the time (living off of unemployment funds), getting some solid camping / work gear was stretching my financial limits. Renting a moving truck cross country was yet another financial hardship, but things just kept falling into place to allow me to make moving to Bozeman a reality.
So, last season happened shortly thereafter the move. When I came in as a crew member in the Greater Yellowstone region in late May 2009, I immediately faced adversity: financially, physically, emotionally, and many other ways. The season was not ideal by any means … constant schedule changes due to stimulus monies changing sponsor needs, interpersonal turmoil between members of my crew, feeling homesick and missing friends / family, the loss of several family members during the season, and so on. In short, life came at me unrelentingly throughout last season whether I was ready for it or not.
The Ah Ha Moment
So, how masochistic must I have seemed to have pursued further employment with MCC after last season??? Well, amidst all the conflict last year, there was a point in time where I turned a corner in my life. The proverbial ‘Ah Ha’ moment – the realization that I was actually being paid to camp out in some of the most remote, beautiful areas in the lower 48 all summer long while fulfilling a desire to serve my country and help others from a volunteer perspective – came to me in Grey’s River, WY while on hitch. My crew had hiked up a section desolate, unused and hardly accessible trail and stumbled upon an alpine lake in the most beautiful area I have laid my eyes on to date. To think that this gem was ‘my office’ for the summer woke me up inside. It’s been my experience that things as beautiful as what I witnessed that day have a way of altering a person ever after. It was during that time that I knew I wanted to pursue work for the MCC in any way, shape, or form past my crew member experience.
I had the skeletal foundation of what this program was, and just how big of an impact it can make on someone’s life as a crew member. I wanted more … I applied and was accepted in a crew leader position for GY 2010. Enter a few months break from outdoor work, and the crew leader season began in mid February. After several hardcore leadership workshops, a weeklong wilderness advanced first aid training course, some backcountry / chainsaw training, and several projects later, I began to piece together my crew member experience through the eyes of my leaders last season. Another Ah-Ha moment came forth – just why exactly did they do what they did and said what they said in those situations??? Everything came full circle for me during those trainings and totally fleshed out the skeletal view I had of the MCC. That Ah-Ha moment left me viewing the program in nothing but the most positive light … MCC is truly a life changing experience, with all the potential in the world of breaking you down to the most fundamental you and then building you back up into something way more than you were before.
Return
What did I come away with, you ask? From last season alone, my self awareness level has gone out the roof. I have never in my life been so perceptive of just who I am and what fabric composes my being … what makes me tick, to what makes me ticked off.
I will come away from this program with the financial savvy to weather any storm that may come my way. I’ve never lived so cheaply in my life, but dually never needed so little to be happy. This was one of the best perks of working for the MCC – I’ve honed my money management skills to a fine point. All the college courses in the world that attempt to prep you for the ‘real world’ couldn’t have had the impact that being an AmeriCorps national volunteer has had on my life, and this impact will directly affect how I live long after my time with the MCC.
I feel confident in my ability to work with anyone doing anything after my experiences in this program. MCC hires such an eclectic group of people every season from all corners of the US, and the personality types that you encounter are so vast – the company of these people throughout the course of a summer in as an intensive work / living environment as we face will leave no alternative but to rub off on you.
Physically, I’ve never been in better shape in my life. The loss of forty pounds last season spurred on a health check in myself that has filtered all the way down to my daily diet. The active lifestyle that I now pursue outside of work is a direct reflection of self betterment that has come with my work in the MCC.
So, some time, a few dollars, and a big move across the US resulted in a life forever altered. Sounds and feels like to me that my college education paid off – the return on investment of time spent working for the MCC is immeasurable.
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