Traveling Through Ashland
I am hoping this course will end up far better than the NOLS Waddington Ranger course. In a nutshell, I left that course after eight days (via helicopter) because I was bored. My grand mountaineering expedition into the wilds of British Columbia, wherein I wished to learn loads of new skills, was an incredible disappointment. Not the fault of NOLS or the instructors either, I think I just had unrealistic expectations for a course that was geared for people with such a wide range of previous experience. I am somewhat embarrassed too, as I spent a very large amount of money on that trip and I got nothing out of it except learning a new knot and how to make spice cake in the wild.
The thought that is running through my head on a daily basis lately is how incredibly spoiled I am. Six grand wasted because I was bored. An incredibly well paying and stable job left because I was frustrated. While on the NOLS course, we crossed a raging river and later a crevasse that was at least 200 feet long and 25 feet deep. Neither was even a blip on my "fun" radar. At what point did mountaineering become too easy? I mean, really, Paul, what the hell?
Sort of relatedly, a friend through the old job is having a bit of a mid-30s crisis. Like most people, she has pulled out the idea of creating and finishing a bucket list. This sounds all well and good, except I have made and completed two bucket lists already in my life. The first during my freshman year of college and another a few years later, after the first was completed. The second one was finished early last year when I finally made it to Italy.
While on that trip I started writing items down for another bucket list. And, I have hardly looked at it since getting back. Nothing on there really strikes my fancy like the items on the other two lists did (examples: falling in love and climbing Mt. Hood). I feel like I am simply out of good ideas for what to do with my life. This summer was meant to be yet another attempt to "reboot" and try a different path to see if I can kick my self out of this apathy. Not exactly promising thus far.
Then there is the fact that I am on the verge of running out of money. I have drawn a line on how much I am willing to take out of the retirement portfolio this year. At this very moment, I have just enough money in my spending account to make it until the beginning of September. So, I really need to get a job or take a plunge in another direction. Let's hope the EMT course at least tickles my noggin' just a bit.