New job begins next week

Probably the most frustrating part of having finally decided what I want to do with the rest of my life is waiting to get started on it! While I am not in a great hurry to leave this area, where my family and most of my friends live, I do find myself almost resenting the ten-month delay before I can begin the Sterling College program. I think the resentment would be less if I were still with Spoutwood, which if not exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life is still a farm, and a valuable pillar of the sustainable agriculture movement in Pennsylvania. Or if I could find work at some other farm... but alas, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

So, next Wednesday, September 2nd, I will be starting work at Cunningham Falls State Park, in Thurmont, Maryland. It will be a part-time (20 hours/week) position, as Volunteer Coordinator. This feels a little awkward for a number of reasons. First, if my goal was still full-time service in the DNR, whether as a Ranger or in some other capacity, this would make sense. Getting my foot in the door, learning about park operations, etc. But as it is, it feels like more of a distraction, taking my attention and focus away from what I really want to do. I wouldn't mind that as much if I were doing educational programs, but volunteer coordinator?

The other awkwardness is that I can't exactly tell them what my plans are for the future: they've gone to some trouble to create the position for me and hold it open for the last month; it'd seem ungrateful to say, "thanks, but I'm only going to be here for a little while." And because of the structure of the position (10-month seasonal), I'm supposed to take off two months during the Winter (off-season)... so in fact, I'll be working September-November, and then February until whenever I actually do end up going to Vermont: most likely in May, if I'm going to start my summer intensive in June. Unfortunately, that'll be right at the time the Park season will start getting busy, so in effect after they've trained me and begun to rely on me, I'll be bailing on them. Which kind of sucks: practically, for them, and ethically, for me.

However, I can't not take the position, either. I've got to have some money coming in, between now and Sterling. A full-time position would be even better, from a financial viewpoint, but at least this is something. So I'm stuck doing a job I'm not especially interested in, at a location an hour away from me (which has financial implications, especially if the cost of gas keeps going back up...), for a limited period of time, while I wait to begin what I really want to do. I know, I know: "sounds like life to me," as the country song puts it. My father, God rest him, would remind me that many people are in the same position or worse, and with the economy the way it is, I should be glad I've got a job at all, even a part-time one. But it's still frustrating!