Yet Another Call to Action...

"For unnumbered centuries of human history the wilderness has given way. The priority of industry has become dogma. Are we as yet sufficiently enlightened to realize that we must now challenge that dogma, or do without our wilderness? Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master?"  ~Aldo Leopold

I know that I have always been conscious of the quiet, but steady destruction of wild places that human consumption necessitates, somewhere in the back of my head there has always been an awareness that natural places that I have known and loved in my life will not always be there.  Its a reality I have been uncomfortable with for a long time, but one that I know I thought, and I think most people think, that they can do nothing about.  How does one person stop the inevitable grind of progress in defense of the wild places they have come to love?  This is an adversary against which the average person cannot possibly compete, right?  But in my more recent work I am beginning to discover the ways in which each of us, in our own way, can make a difference.  I am finding them, and I want to share them, because this is a fight that is truly worth fighting, not just for the environmentalists and the outdoors enthusiasts, but for everyone and let me tell you why.  

I recently listened to an episode of the podcast called "Too Much Information" with Benjamen Walker called "4 Big Ideas From Sept 17th, 2012" and I highly recommend it to everyone, and I mean everyone, not just environmentalists, even though I know that my audience of the 4 people who read this blog is heavily biased on the environmental side, please share this, because this matters.  It's about the book Small is Beautiful by the British economist and author E. F. Schumacher and it talks about economics of scale.  My favorite quote from the episode is by the author Andrew Sims, who says: 

"If a business goes bankrupt you can set up elsewhere, if the biosphere, if the ecosystems upon which we depend are bankrupted through over-exploitation, well, there might be no coming back from that."

I love it because I think it completely explains the sense of urgency I feel about protecting the planet that we depend on, not just because I am a nature-loving tree-hugger, but because I can see that in a very fundamental way this planet sustains us, and if we don't take care to preserve at least some of it, eventually we will bankrupt it.  Consider this statistic:  According to the Pew Environment Group 6000 acres of open land are lost each day...each day!  That is 2.19 million acres of land that are lost each year, every year or alternatively 250 acres per hour...until somebody says that's enough.  I'm saying that's enough now.  We cannot live as though our resources are infinite, we cannot assume that growth is always the answer.  Try to imagine a world with no open spaces, no wild lands, no wilderness.  It should be unimaginable, because it is illogical and unnatural, but I've met people who say they would prefer it.  I think this is a preference borne of a lack of understanding.  

So what can you do to help change this?  

Educate, teach your children about the environment and wildernesses that you love, your parents, your friends.  Talk about it, tell people why you care.  I can't help but be passionate about these things, and it just bubbles out of me all the time.  Ask any one of my friends, I am one of the most annoying hiking buddies ever, because I just spout information about ecosystems, air quality, endangered species, habitat loss, and anything else that pops into my head.  I can't help it, but I like to think that every once in a while I inspire someone else to care, and that is the best outcome that I can think of.  

Support, not everyone wants to do the kind of work that I do, and that is absolutely fine.  Not everyone has to, but if you support the efforts that people in my line of work are making, show it.  I know so many people who agree with what I do, and congratulate my efforts to protect these wild lands, but getting people to lift a pen and share these feelings with others is like pulling teeth!  Writing a letter to the editor, blog post, facebook post, or tweet about a local wilderness area that you love can be so inspiring to someone like me who spends their days making efforts that most people never even notice.  Like the Campaign for America's Wilderness on facebook, find the person closest to your area who is out there inventorying public lands to find eligible wilderness areas and shake their hand, write them a thank you letter, or donate to their organization.  Write to your congress person urging them to give lands near you wilderness protection.  These things can take 5 minutes, but if you don't show anyone that these issues matter to you, no one will ever do anything about it.  

Warning: Shameless plug of my own work to follow...

If you are in Wyoming, have traveled to Wyoming, or want to travel to Wyoming, consider doing me the favor of writing something about your appreciation of the lands that I have inventoried.  If you hunt in Wyoming, consider voicing how crucial winter ranges for big game need better protections so that there will continue to be healthy populations of game for sport hunting.  If you appreciate desert landscapes, consider writing to the to a local paper and expressing how important it is that we realize deserts are not simply wasted space, sitting on top of possible energy reserves, but are instead valuable habitats and ecosystems.  If you like backpacking and back country camping, write to your favorite magazine or publication urging readers to recognize that many of the areas they enjoy are not yet protected, and could in fact be developed at any time.  

Do something!  Do anything.  Express what you care about in your state and why to anyone that you can, because tomorrow's 6000 acres could be the forests and fields of your childhood, and if you stay quiet today you'll forever regret it when that fateful tomorrow comes.  

"The most striking thing about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed."  -E. F. Schumacher

I've hit a wall.

I've had the wind knocked out of me.  I read my horoscope today and it told me this would happen, it literally said that the wind would be knocked out of me soon, but somehow I was still surprised.  I was at the dinner table with my folks, talking about my impending move and dreaming about purchasing a functioning stereo for my car, when I had the nerve to crunch some numbers.  Never a good idea, especially not when you've been keeping a blog called UNEMPLOYED in a small town for nearly 3 years now, but I plugged on, hoping I could find money in my budget to purchase an $89.99 stereo that would let me listen to my i-pod in my car.  What I found was this: I can't afford to leave home.

Lets briefly recap my life, for those of you know who don't know me well.  I graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in environmental engineering.  I turned down at least 2 standing job offers to join the Peace Corps because I "wanted to help people."  I moved to West Africa for 15 months, where I learned more from the experience than anyone learned from me, and was evacuated before my project got off the ground.  (It wasn't a complete loss though, my project inspired my local partners to continue with it even though I'm not there anymore...and I can say good morning in 5 languages!)  Evacuation from Peace Corps thrust me back into the now floundering US economy where I spent 6 months job hunting and eventually landed an AmeriCorps volunteer position that gave me the three things I thought I needed most in a job: student loan forbearance, health insurance, and a chance to pseudo-finish the 2-year volunteer commitment I had made to Peace Corps.  I did that for a year and had a fantastic time; I learned so much, I experienced so much, met so many great people, and I learned all about restoration and environmental conservation work and that went on to inspire me to alter my career goals from engineering to conservation and restoration.  After that I had an opportunity to drive back home to VT with a friend, and since I had no clear career plans where I was, I jumped at the chance to go on a two week road trip across the country with one of my best friends.  Half way home I decided I didn't really want to spend much time there, and neither did she, so she called in some favors and landed us a job in St. Thomas at a hotel.  Six months I lived down in paradise with some great friends and a decent job.  I enjoyed it a lot, but one thing that I struggled with and that eventually drove me to head home, was the lack of meaning.  I need to have a purpose, and I don't feel right unless I'm working toward something that I believe in.  So, once again, I packed my bags and headed for the frozen north, home to my folks, to regroup.  I've been at home since, working at a ski resort and trying to get my ducks back in a row.  I'm planning on staying here until my brother's wedding in June and then had fully planned on moving on, to something undoubtedly new and exciting and as of yet, undiscovered.

For four years now I have been a professional job seeker, adventurer, and often full time volunteer.  I have also been broke.  I never thought it mattered until tonight.  Money has never registered high on my list of priorities, I can live very cheaply when I need to and I am very proud of that.  Today though, I took a step back and looked at my life.  I'm 26 now.  I haven't been to a doctor, dentist, or eye doctor in over a year, I'm still wearing focus daily contacts that I bought a 6 month supply of 4 years ago and have made last until...now, I don't have glasses because I broke the pair I got before college a few years ago and haven't replaced them, I'm running in the same running shoes I bought 8 years ago, a lot of my clothes have holes in them, I wear leggings every day because I can't afford jeans, and there are at least 4 things wrong with my car that I'm just not going to fix.  My net worth, all I own, minus all I owe in student loans, is negative $20,000.

All of a sudden tonight, I realized that money does matter to me.  Not in the way that I thought it would either, the old clothes, beater car, and questionable optical practices don't bother me.  Mostly I just want to stop relying on the kindness of others to keep myself afloat.  I'm not a sponge, and I desperately want independence, because no one should have to pay for my choice to live this way but me.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I found myself crying in my pea soup at the dinner table tonight.  My poor parents, stunned to silence, just watched, with no idea what to say.  And what should they say?  We're sorry that you've selected this life for yourself?  We have let you live here rent free, utility free, even fed you, for the last 6 months (not to mention the first 18 years of your life), but is there anything else we can do?  We whole-heartedly supported you in all of your insane pipe dreams, we held our breath and our tongues when you boarded a plane for West Africa at 22, picked you up at the airport when you gave us 12 hours notice that you were being evacuated and would be on our doorstep the next day, we funded your road trip out on your random move to Cali for yet another volunteer job, we bailed you out when your shitty car crapped out on you in Cali, we sent care packages to you while you were playing in the virgin islands, and we STILL pay your cell phone bill, but how can we make this easier for you?

So when I put it like that I sound a bit ungrateful...but I think I have been a bit ungrateful.  It's not as though I'm irresponsible, I rarely ask for help when I'm not living at home, but I have taken this home for granted, and I have forgotten to be appropriately thankful for it. I have always had this place as my fall back, but I have forgotten to acknowledge how lucky I am to have that.  So tonight my horoscope has won, it said the wind would be knocked out of me and it was, but it also said I needed it.  It said that this would be a good thing, that I would learn from it and move on, no worse for the wear.  Well horoscope, I'm not usually a strong believer in what you have to say, but this week you hit the nail on the head.  I cried, I whined, I felt sorry for myself, I did all those things you are supposed to do when life slaps you in the face.  Now though, I know what my challenges are, I've had my setback, and I'm going to move forward, no worse for the wear.  I'm intelligent, I learn from my mistakes, I work hard, and there is no reason why I can't learn how to be a slightly more responsible version of myself.

So thank you, to everyone who has held me up, helped me out, and reminded me how lucky I am. Thank you to my parents, for doing all of those things, and listening to me whine about it all along the way.  Thank you to my brother, who has done so much for me over the years that I can't even begin to make it up to him.  Thank you to everyone who has ever been there for me when I needed them.  I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life, and I am so excited to get myself back on my feet and back out into the world, and to start paying back some of the favors that I owe.

I'm not giving up, I am going to move out.  I can't afford it now, but I'm going to make it affordable, because I'm an adult, and as tricky as it can seem, taking responsibility for your life is not impossible.  I'm going to take a deep breath, find a paying job to get me through the next few months, and then follow my dreams on my own dime.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” -Maria Robinson

(this is a repeat photo, because sunrises just make me feel so empowered!) 

Thanks for listening...well...reading.  

Taiwan and belated thanks givings...

Here I am, home again, after a whirlwind of adventure in Taiwan to celebrate the engagement of my brother, Cory, and his girlfriend (who is now his fiance!), Hsaio-Han.  I had a great time on my trip and I learned a lot about Taiwanese and Chinese culture, which I have had limited experience with in my adventures thus far.  We had many family meals with Hsiao-Han and her extended family, including lots of authentic Taiwanese food, Japanese food, Thai food, and more.  I continue to be blown away by the hospitality and generosity of each new culture that I experience.  I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone and was very glad for our gracious hosts who translated for us, showed us around, and right from day one, treated us like family.  We'll have some big shoes to fill this spring when it is our family's turn to host them.  It is customary in their culture for members of the family, such as uncles, aunts, and cousins, to want to treat the guests of their family members to a meal during their stay.  We were spoiled, truly spoiled, during this trip and when it was time to leave I had no words that were worthy of the thank you I wish that I had been able to articulate.

In my travels and adventures through life thus far I have seen families in Africa host friends and family members to the point that they could barely afford to feed themselves, go miles out of their way to walk me to work when they had only to walk half that distance to get to their own, give up their own plans to help keep me safe in mine.  In Taiwan I watched family help family by loaning an apartment for us to stay in, loaning our hosting family a van for our transportation, treating us to dinner, helping cart us all around, and most of all never making us feel like an imposition.  In Saint Thomas friends brought me fresh fruit and veggies while I was working the desk, gave me rides or allowed me to borrow a car to get anywhere I needed to go, treated me to many meals and drinks when money became tight for me, and generally appreciated and treated me like family, all by people I had known for all of a month (and also by Nicole, whom I have known and loved since we were assigned to be roommates freshman year in college...love you apple-bottom-whiskers!)  In California I was offered several different home-stays while searching for a place to live, I was picked up and put up by friends when my car broke down in the middle of the road, I was given rides and places to stay, taught the area and shown around by almost strangers just because I was new and had no one else to rely on.

Traveling never fails to remind me how lucky I am in all ways - I have fantastic parents who will take me in whenever I run low on money and want to live without rent for a bit.  I have fantastic family members who will get up at 4 am to drive us to the airport without batting an eye.  I have fantastic friends who have taken care of me so many times and in so many ways I don't even begin to know how to list them all.  I have had the opportunity and the freedom to go to college, get an education, find what I am good at and find what makes me happy.  I have the freedom to live at home and bar tend on the weekends for a few months in order to be able to turn down high paying jobs that bring in to question my moral values.  I have created a life for myself that allows me to move and travel and try new things whenever I want to, that has allowed me to find my passion, and to work my way towards it.  Sometimes I take that for granted, I try to reach beyond my means because I am so used to being caught before I fall, so its important that every once in a while I stop and take a look around and realize how much I have been given, and how much I should be thankful for.  This Thanksgiving I was on the opposite side of the world, so far removed from all the "normal" Thanksgiving traditions, and yet the day still managed to remind me to give thanks for all that I have.  So thank you, to my hosts, my family, my friends, and to everyone who has helped me along my way.  I know that I never hesitate to ask for help from friends and family when I need it and I hope none of you will ever hesitate to ask me for anything either.

Some pictures of my fabulous trip to Taiwan:

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

I'm not sure where September when, but today's date assures me that the month is pretty much over, despite my disbelief.  And with the close of September comes the close of my time here in St. Thomas.  I have made the extremely difficult decision to leave (despite several lucrative offers to stay) after completing a person budget and coming to terms with the fact that living here at this stage in my life is not a wise financial decision (damn you student loans!).  So, once again, it's home for a regroup and new plans coming soon.  This time, more than any other, I am seriously considering grad school as a possible option (because I obviously don't have enough student loans already...) and have even gone so far as to sing up for the GRE.  I'll be one of the very first lucky idiots to be taking the new revised test, so grad school admissions folks - if you are reading this keep in mind that scores ALWAYS go down after a major change in the test, I'm smarter than my score will most likely make me look.  Reassuring right?  Not.

So, here I am, as per my usual, standing at the precipice of some new big adventure, waiting for the fog to clear and show me just exactly what it will be.  For now it's memory sharing time, here are the things that St. Thomas allowed me to check off of my bucket list: 

1. Live on an island.  Self explanatory, awesome, enough said.
2. Take a picture of a lightning bolt.  We all know I'm a photography nerd so this was a very exciting development for me.
3. Snorkel in the Caribbean.  Spotted eagle rays, brain coral, sea turtles, starfish, tropical fish, urchins, and awesome-ness.  
4. Night Snorkel in the Caribbean.  Bio-luminescence is amazing, underwater flashlights are fun, and big shiny silver tarpin fish are not sharks.  Phew.  
5. Island Hop!  St. Thomas, St. John, Jost van Dyke, Tortola, and more.  Boats are fantastically fun toys in the islands.  
6. Enjoy fresh Coconuts, straight from the tree.  And watch very talented West Indian Rasta guys scale palm trees like they're playground toys.  
7. Experience a tropical storm/almost hurricane first hand.  Exciting, except not, when you work at a hotel these things usually mean canceled flights, equating to a very busy night in the office checking in disgruntled travelers in howling wind and pounding rain.  
8. Hiking to gorgeous views and plantation ruins, read about the history of the ruins and the islands.  Did you know that slavery was abolished in the USVI several years prior to it's abolition in the states, but several years after it was abolished in the BVI (British Virgin Islands).  Brave souls used to build rafts, steal away in boats, and some even swam the short distance from St. John to Tortola; anything for freedom.  
9. Share this adventure with my mom!  Very cool for my mom to get to come down here and experience this crazy place with me, it's the first time on of my immediate family members has been able to visit me on my travels and it was a really neat thing to share.  
10. Ride a ferris wheel on top of the world.  Or so it felt, swirling around on the edge of the steep hill that is paradise point.  
11. Night swimming; swimsuits optional.  Late night skinny dipping on secluded beaches with silly friends to cap off a fun night out?  Count me in!

I'm sure there's more but I'm too lazy to continue - the point is, I've had a very good run here.  Nothing sad about it ending, I'll come visit again someday and for now I have nothing but new and exciting things to look forward to.  I'm a lucky lucky girl.

 

 

New Adventures!

Well helllllo there...did you miss me?  I have been doing a terrrrrrrible job lately of keeping my blog updated...things have been just plain crazy busy!  Between Halloween celebrations, pub crawls in Reno, NV, work, and potluck Tuesdays (a weekly themed potluck dinner that I started having in my old house before I moved and am happy to say has grown into a regular weekly gathering of fantastic people and tasty food!) I have barely had time to settle into my new place, let alone update all of you on my comings and goings!  So here comes a long winded one, certain to have some priceless kodak moments captured for your enjoyment out there on the other coast...gosh I miss being even in the same timezone as my family!

Anywho, as you all know, my AmeriCorps service year is coming to a close this December (oh soooo soon!  I'm not ready!) So I jumped right back up onto that job application bandwagon that includes roughly 10% of all Americans these days...my heart goes out to those who have not been as lucky as I have.  I have met plenty of college graduates with impressive resumes waiting tables and working seasonal temporary jobs only to spent the other 6 months of the year unemployed to know that I have been plenty lucky to end up where I have getting the experiences that I am.  I have not ruled out the possibility of finding a "real job" as my pops and brother put it ("Shelby...don't you think its time for you to get a real job?" - the easy answer is no...) as I know that a steady income and comfortable home cannot be discounted, and believe me, I'll get there, as soon as I'm good and ready and find what I'm looking for.  I have applied to several federal jobs, dozens of private jobs, and a few temporary placeholder type jobs, and I'm in a somewhat similar position to the one I was in last year at this time.  I'm running out of time to make a decision though because this time I have bills to pay, I'm 3000 miles from all the people that would put me up for free until I do find something, and my health insurance is expiring (a terrifying thought in America today).  So, because I know you are all curious as to what may come next, I will tell you.  I am considering, quite seriously, completeing a second term of AmeriCorps out here with the Conservancy.  Now before you go jumping to any conclusion about me taking the easy road, shirking responsibility, and staying so damn far away from everyone, keep in mind that I am a responsible and rational person and I have never done ANYTHING that I didn't know was the right decision, and while I am not completely settled on this yet (so yes, please keep sending me jobs if you see them, and thank you so much to those of you that already have!) I do know that if I go for it, it is because it is absolutely what I want to do.

For you doubting-thomases out there, here is why I believe that I will have made the right choice.  First and foremost, this job has been the luckiest result of my first job falling through that I could have asked for, I have learned a whole new skill set in environmental monitoring, I have learned of a whole new possible career path in restoration (where environmental engineering tends to clean up after and/or regulate the damage irresponsible (and really all) humans do to the environment, restoration aims at returning the natural environment to its pre-influenced state, a subtle but significant difference), and I have met a group of incredibly smart and kind and interesting people, full of knowledge and happy to share; you cant ask for a better work environment!  More than that, with AmeriCorps I have the flexibility of making my own schedule, running my own days, and coming and going as I please, which I love, but has not once slowed me down...still working the occasional 60 hour week mostly because I enjoy what I do and don't mind putting in the time it takes to do a good job.  Today, with the economy the way it is, so many people have been forced to work jobs that they can't even stand going to just to pay the bills.  I'm young, I have no major obligations, I can afford to live in the low income manor of the perpetual volunteer, and for now, I don't mind.  This seems a small price to pay for a job I enjoy, meaningful experience, and incredible learning opportunities.  All that seems like enough, and it is, but theres more!  I live in what might be one of the most beautiful places in the entire country, Lake Tahoe.  There are tons of recreation opportunities and I have already fallen in love with backpacking and hiking in the Sierra Nevada, and these are mostly free once you collect the gear you need!  Plus I get a $5,000 education award for each year of service...meaning that after 2 years of AmeriCorps plus my brief one year in Peace Corps I will have knocked out $13,500 worth of my student loans.  Now I'm not an accountant, but I think thats probably significantly more than I would have paid off had I just taken one of those job offers at graduation and started with regular payments.

So there you have it, my justification for my life that no one has asked me to justify, but sometimes you just need to explain these things to someone else as a way to explain them to yourself.  Anyway, its been quite a ride thus far and I'm not quite ready to give up the possibility of finding a job that actually pays AND makes me happy...but until then I will settle for ones that I love that don't pay, because happiness is more important than money, and I truly believe that.  Here are some images of my adventures, a recap of some of my favorite old ones and some new ones, a celebration of all I've done since college:

Dusty evening in Mauritania

Ramadan Fete with my Host Family...I miss them so!  Plus I was good friend with that sheep, so sad that he ended up in my tummy, vegetarian no more!

Epic battles with insanely large spiders

Back to Vermont winters with my wonderful parents and adorable doggies!

A road trip across the entire country with my Papa Bear

A few months spent learning to live alone and finding new friends in Placerville

Exciting new adventures in a beautiful new home in South Lake Tahoe

And more recently: Watching the Kokanee swim upstream only to lay their eggs and die, while the mallards stand by to eat those eggs that the fish gave their lives for as soon as they are left in the gravel

My first trip to the biggest little city in the world, and my first pub crawl dressed as a zombie too!

So this is what I think I would look like if I were among the walking dead...

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween weekend and a wonderful week, and I promise I will start to update more often again (sorry for the delay Momma!).  Sorry for my long-winded explanations but I can't expect you all to continue to support me in my adventures without explaining to you why they mean so much to me.  So I hope you are looking forward to more stories to come, because I'm not done living yet!  More pictures and adventures to come, I promise!

Much love and happy thoughts to all who read this!

~Shelby

mallards

i had lunch up at the park today and this lovely couple joined me, begged and begged and begged for my lunch, and then eventually gave up and waddled off.  I think they're awful cute....don't you?

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Happy Easter!

Today I borrowed a friends family to spend my easter with, since mine was so far away!  They were incredibly nice and welcoming and I'm so lucky to have been a part of their holiday!  They even made me a little Easter basket and sent me home with hardboiled colored eggs!  On the way home I caught my first glimpse of the golden gate bridge, and snapped a quick photo.  It was cold and rainy here all day, and this photo reflects that pretty well, still, its the only one I took today so it'll have to do.

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this one goes out to Luis!

Luis my Friend, I know its a bit late, but this cake was made with you in mind.  I miss you sir!  Hope your birthday was happy and wish you were here to share some cake and share some of your infinite knowledge about why Portugal is the most awesome place ever...someday I'll get there!  and when I do...you can bet your ass there will be cake!

Happy Birthday to: Arthur (6th), Elly (11th), Luis (12th), Becca Moore (14th), Me (14th), Hsiao-Han (15th), Celia (16th), Becky Fogarty (29th), and Meaghan Gallagher (31st)!

And of course lots of love, smiles, and happy thoughts to everyone, no matter when your birthday is!

And now for the photo of the day:

(click to enlarge if you'd like a better look)

Taken on a hike this morning in Coloma, CA, this is a fence post with a few dozen acorns tucked into it.  I learned that the Acorn Woodpecker stores their winter snacks in just about any wooden surface they can find, such as a fence post, or perhaps a little more irritatingly, the wooden siding on houses round these parts. 

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