April Thoughts and Excitements

The snow is long gone here in DC. It's been beautiful out the past few weeks. Even seasonal allergies couldn't keep me at bay. This time of year is usually a tense and exciting time. For the past couple of years, April has been a month spent getting ready to drive out west for the summer. It's usually a month where I spend a lot of time hanging out with the special people in my life and saying "see ya in a few months". April is also the time I usually get my employment offers with Raytheon and when I start getting ready to head back to Antarctica. As much as I started kicking myself for not choosing to go out west this summer, I'm glad I had the foresight to apply to go back down to McMurdo this Austral summer. While I await word as to whether or not I will be hired to go back down this upcoming season, the feeling of unhappiness still lingers within. I do, however, embrace this melancholic feeling. My unhappiness with living back in the DC area as led me to a profound moment in my life. It has only been during these past 8 months that I've come up with all kinds of wild thoughts about what to do with the rest of my life from this point forward. For one, I need to move out west...the sooner the better. I've also toyed with the idea of wintering in Antarctica next year which has lead me to wonder as to whether I'd like it and want to do several cycles of 14 months down in McMurdo followed by 2 months off or if I'd hate it after I survived a winter and would never want to go back. I'm really hoping to work a couple seasons of fire in both California and Alaska then perhaps moving over into the law enforcement realm and become a park ranger. Wishful dreaming right now but first I have to survive a summer here in DC then find a way out west and, well, maybe stay out there for good...