And Now for Something Completely Different…
Life is, to me at least, a grand attempt to understand ourself, others, and the Universe. To do that, you must begin by exploring new possibilities and challenging current beliefs. As Amelia stated so elegantly a couple weeks ago, a well known Reedie edict is that "no behavior, no credo, no aspect of life is sacred, or given, it is all subject to analysis and revision."
What has become apparent to me over the past couple months is that I find no joy in my current work. Years ago, I was madly fascinated by coding and developing software. The problems, the trials, and the extreme effort that Rick and I expended to build a company seemed worthwhile as it was new, exciting, and challenging. A great deal of balance was sacrificed from my life in order to see where that adventure led. That time is past though. For a while now, I have attempted to regain that drive by building new, clever things in PHP for ExpressionEngine. Each attempt to build a new piece of code that truly piqued my interest has ended up being a lesson in frustration. So, it has come to pass that work has, quite simply, become work.
That is not the life I want to live; where my work is simply 40 hours of my week that I spend making money to fund other activities. There are far too many possibilities out there for one to spend one's life having a merely acceptable job.
This thought had been strongly percolating in my noggin when I noticed that a Wilderness First Responder course was being offered by OMSI for nine days in the middle of February. Taking the course was an extremely welcomed breath of fresh air in my life. For nine days I entertained no doubts about what I was doing. My mind was throughly and completely challenged by a constant barrage of information, training, and experiences. A three hour emergency wilderness scenario in the freezing desert, after dark, with two patients, one having a serious compound fracture? That was a more enveloping and true challenge than anything I have experienced in a long time. I could have kept on going non-stop for weeks, possibly months, learning more and more about medicine and survival in the outdoors.
The majority of my fellow participants were outdoor educators — instructors at OMSI's Science Camps, the Northwest Outdoor School, or leading their own clients into the outdoors. They loved their work and were excited to gain more training to further their abilities. While there, one of the OMSI people suggested I apply for an instructor position at OMSI or one of the other camps in the Northwest. Thinking about this on the drive home, I had to agree. Why am I spending so much time working on a couch coding when I could be outside doing the outdoor activities I love, while teaching and sharing them with others? I love the outdoors. Hours of my week are wasted simply staring out the window wishing I could be out there instead of inside. Out there climbing, backpacking, hiking, skiing, kayaking, and so much more.
So, when I returned home I informed Mitchell of my intention to pursue this new line of work, and I have begun filling out applications for various outdoor educator positions. I am also eyeing a Wilderness EMT course and a NOLS mountaineering course in the near future. The next few months will hopefully be very interesting and very worthwhile as I figure out this new path.
Naturally, this means that by the end of March I will cease developing Add-Ons for ExpressionEngine and writing new software in PHP. I will consult a bit for Solspace concerning the new tools and code I have written for them, but I am intending to leave this line of work entirely...and try something completely different.
What has become apparent to me over the past couple months is that I find no joy in my current work. Years ago, I was madly fascinated by coding and developing software. The problems, the trials, and the extreme effort that Rick and I expended to build a company seemed worthwhile as it was new, exciting, and challenging. A great deal of balance was sacrificed from my life in order to see where that adventure led. That time is past though. For a while now, I have attempted to regain that drive by building new, clever things in PHP for ExpressionEngine. Each attempt to build a new piece of code that truly piqued my interest has ended up being a lesson in frustration. So, it has come to pass that work has, quite simply, become work.
That is not the life I want to live; where my work is simply 40 hours of my week that I spend making money to fund other activities. There are far too many possibilities out there for one to spend one's life having a merely acceptable job.
This thought had been strongly percolating in my noggin when I noticed that a Wilderness First Responder course was being offered by OMSI for nine days in the middle of February. Taking the course was an extremely welcomed breath of fresh air in my life. For nine days I entertained no doubts about what I was doing. My mind was throughly and completely challenged by a constant barrage of information, training, and experiences. A three hour emergency wilderness scenario in the freezing desert, after dark, with two patients, one having a serious compound fracture? That was a more enveloping and true challenge than anything I have experienced in a long time. I could have kept on going non-stop for weeks, possibly months, learning more and more about medicine and survival in the outdoors.
The majority of my fellow participants were outdoor educators — instructors at OMSI's Science Camps, the Northwest Outdoor School, or leading their own clients into the outdoors. They loved their work and were excited to gain more training to further their abilities. While there, one of the OMSI people suggested I apply for an instructor position at OMSI or one of the other camps in the Northwest. Thinking about this on the drive home, I had to agree. Why am I spending so much time working on a couch coding when I could be outside doing the outdoor activities I love, while teaching and sharing them with others? I love the outdoors. Hours of my week are wasted simply staring out the window wishing I could be out there instead of inside. Out there climbing, backpacking, hiking, skiing, kayaking, and so much more.
So, when I returned home I informed Mitchell of my intention to pursue this new line of work, and I have begun filling out applications for various outdoor educator positions. I am also eyeing a Wilderness EMT course and a NOLS mountaineering course in the near future. The next few months will hopefully be very interesting and very worthwhile as I figure out this new path.
Naturally, this means that by the end of March I will cease developing Add-Ons for ExpressionEngine and writing new software in PHP. I will consult a bit for Solspace concerning the new tools and code I have written for them, but I am intending to leave this line of work entirely...and try something completely different.
– Posted: March 01, 2010, 12:26 pm