My Year of Living Rangerously: the reckoning

It's been almost a year. And what a year, the best yet. But now, as I approach the end of my ranger hours for this year, I'm reminded of the fragile nature of being a seasonal ranger.

I was very fortunate to have an additional 900 training hours in this, my first year, of rangering. Now however those hours are sputtering out as I come up on my appointment date of May 28. I'll be rangering only four days a week to make up the shortfall in hours until then. On May 29 (my birthday) my clock will be reset and I'll have another six months of rangering hours ahead of me, which also means six months of doing something else to keep a paycheck coming in.

I've already posted entries about the world of substitute teaching and its ups and downs. I've recently been picking up hours in a retail/warehousing setting. I'll be exploring opportunities as diverse as being a paraprofessional in the public schools (which would allow for weekend and summertime rangering) and Home Depot or some other home improvement place (with our new house and yard the employee discount could make this one a better choice).

I've also been doing more paid writing and illustrating gigs.

Everything, though, pales in comparison to this thing I've really come to love; rangering at Antietam National Battlefield.

I guess its alot like being an artist, actor, writer, athelete or musician. Seems that everybody who does something that they're passionate about needs to have "a day job". Its a pretty big club, my wife is a member.

Jobs that require passion aren't really "jobs" at all, they're trancendent experiences, a rush, a high, a you-know-what.
So the piper's got to be paid eventually, cause those groceries won't just walk in the door by themselves.

There are a few writers, and a few musicians, and a few artists, and a few rangers who are fortunate enough to experience that passion full-time with healthcare no less!

To become a full-time ranger is difficult enough for a young person who has no ties. For a middle-aged homeowner who has put down roots it may well be impossible. 90% of the ranger force is comprised of seasonals. They come and they go. Some stay for a long long time. I hope, at least, to be one of those.

Another seasonal with a decade of service, sums it up thus:

"It is what it is"

And, despite its frailty, "what it is" is better than just about anything else.

Watch for me in the orange apron, in the school lunchroom, and hopefully, for a long time to come...



in the big hat.

Ranger Mannie