Many people assume I am moving to Idaho Falls because Christian got a job there. A few people seem concerned that these circumstances are taking me away from the big city, away from arts and culture, professional opportunities, and a great job. While it is technically true that I am following Christian (since he moved there first) I want to make it clear that I am not following him. It was my dream to move close to Yellowstone; it has been my dream for 13 years. It was my dream before I met Christian, before I decided to move to Baltimore, before I knew we were going to do the marriage thing. I spent a lot of time at the beginning of our relationship telling Christian about Yellowstone and the Tetons, showing him my photos and sketches, but we didn't discuss living there. Life seemed complicated enough: learning to live together, figuring out if and how we should move out of his parents' place, establishing my career, getting him out of the construction world before his job disappeared in the slump. Grown-up things. No more student-style traveling for me.
A few years ago, shortly after Christian started working at the Smithsonian, he spotted a Park Service job on USAjobs in Yellowstone that he was qualified for and emailed it to me. I can still vividly remember receiving that email. I didn't know it then, of course, but it was a pivotal moment. I was sat at the Luce desk, my thoughts crashing in quickly as I realized what it meant. We could work for the Park Service. We could live in a National Park. More than just traveling, this could be our life. I immediately signed up for job notifications for Park Service jobs and started dreaming.
Christian didn't apply for that job, we still weren't quite ready, but we did start talking about our future in the mountains. Still an undefined, distant future, but a persistent one. In 2008 we got married and in 2010 we spent our (belated) honeymoon in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I was relieved that it was even better than I remembered, and incredibly happy that Christian became infatuated too. As soon as we stepped off the plane at Jackson Hole airport and saw the Tetons beyond the runway, he was smitten. So much so that the security folks had to ask him to stop taking photos and please proceed into the airport.
We spent the next few years visiting other parks, forming a list of the ones we'd be happy to live in. These included Zion, Bryce Canyon (a favorite), Grand Canyon, and Acadia. In June of 2013 I was in L.A. for E3. A job notification came in for a safety job in Billings, Montana. Christian's exact job. I forwarded it to Christian and spent the rest of the trip boring my colleague with my future life in Montana. Christian applied and, while browsing USAjobs, found the same position posted in Casper, Wyoming, and Idaho Falls. We hardly ever saw relevant jobs, to find three at once was incredible. He applied for each of them. Fast forward to August and he got interviews for all three. We started desperately researching Billings, Casper, and Idaho Falls since we'd never visited any of them (I'd passed through Billings on a Greyhound, but only remembered the Waffle House). On August 28 he got offers from Billings and Idaho Falls. The Billings job was for the Bureau of Reclamation and paid more, the Idaho job was for the Forest Service. I was about to head to the airport to fly to England, so we met for 30 minutes in the deli at work to make a decision. Despite the lower pay, the Forest Service won because, well, it had a forest. 3 million acres of forest, to be exact. And everything we'd read about Idaho Falls said it was an amazing place to live. We decided - Idaho was it!
I am not following. It was my dream. It became our dream. We made it happen. Any uncertainty I had about the lower income, the remoteness, and the perceived reduced opportunities vanished once I spent time out there. Now I can't believe we waited so long. If you have a dream, a wish, a desire to live somewhere else or do something else, you should DO IT. It's terrifying to leave financial security and a prestigious job for the unknown. I'm still scared. The sensible part of my brain thinks I'm crazy. I'm sure that there will be many challenges ahead (not least because we will be sharing our money for the first time), but I know that Idaho Falls (and the farmhouse in Grant) is where we are supposed to be.
A few years ago, shortly after Christian started working at the Smithsonian, he spotted a Park Service job on USAjobs in Yellowstone that he was qualified for and emailed it to me. I can still vividly remember receiving that email. I didn't know it then, of course, but it was a pivotal moment. I was sat at the Luce desk, my thoughts crashing in quickly as I realized what it meant. We could work for the Park Service. We could live in a National Park. More than just traveling, this could be our life. I immediately signed up for job notifications for Park Service jobs and started dreaming.
Christian didn't apply for that job, we still weren't quite ready, but we did start talking about our future in the mountains. Still an undefined, distant future, but a persistent one. In 2008 we got married and in 2010 we spent our (belated) honeymoon in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I was relieved that it was even better than I remembered, and incredibly happy that Christian became infatuated too. As soon as we stepped off the plane at Jackson Hole airport and saw the Tetons beyond the runway, he was smitten. So much so that the security folks had to ask him to stop taking photos and please proceed into the airport.
We spent the next few years visiting other parks, forming a list of the ones we'd be happy to live in. These included Zion, Bryce Canyon (a favorite), Grand Canyon, and Acadia. In June of 2013 I was in L.A. for E3. A job notification came in for a safety job in Billings, Montana. Christian's exact job. I forwarded it to Christian and spent the rest of the trip boring my colleague with my future life in Montana. Christian applied and, while browsing USAjobs, found the same position posted in Casper, Wyoming, and Idaho Falls. We hardly ever saw relevant jobs, to find three at once was incredible. He applied for each of them. Fast forward to August and he got interviews for all three. We started desperately researching Billings, Casper, and Idaho Falls since we'd never visited any of them (I'd passed through Billings on a Greyhound, but only remembered the Waffle House). On August 28 he got offers from Billings and Idaho Falls. The Billings job was for the Bureau of Reclamation and paid more, the Idaho job was for the Forest Service. I was about to head to the airport to fly to England, so we met for 30 minutes in the deli at work to make a decision. Despite the lower pay, the Forest Service won because, well, it had a forest. 3 million acres of forest, to be exact. And everything we'd read about Idaho Falls said it was an amazing place to live. We decided - Idaho was it!
I am not following. It was my dream. It became our dream. We made it happen. Any uncertainty I had about the lower income, the remoteness, and the perceived reduced opportunities vanished once I spent time out there. Now I can't believe we waited so long. If you have a dream, a wish, a desire to live somewhere else or do something else, you should DO IT. It's terrifying to leave financial security and a prestigious job for the unknown. I'm still scared. The sensible part of my brain thinks I'm crazy. I'm sure that there will be many challenges ahead (not least because we will be sharing our money for the first time), but I know that Idaho Falls (and the farmhouse in Grant) is where we are supposed to be.
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