![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.strugglingteens.com\/artman\/uploads\/060329_family_services_centerweb.jpg\")
…and I’m kind of hesitant to answer.<\/p>\n…and I’m kind of hesitant to answer.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, my sister went through Wilderness Quest<\/a>, a wilderness therapy organization based in Monticello, Utah.\u00a0 At the end of the program, I went down with my whole family for family therapy.\u00a0 The experience was incredible–intense, emotional, and very life changing for all of us.<\/p>\n Fast forward to last month.\u00a0 After graduating college, I had this crazy idea: maybe I could apply for a job with some wilderness therapy organization.\u00a0 My sister, who worked for WQ after completing their program, told me that they’re always looking for qualified, motivated people for the wilderness staff.\u00a0 As a clean, addiction-free, college grad, chances are fairly good that I could get a job here.<\/p>\n I talked with my sister for a LONG time about it.\u00a0 Yes, it’s tough–the teens in the program are very, very troubled, and there’s all kinds of drama.\u00a0 Some of the kids are forcibly escorted to Monticello by professional kidnappers that their parents have hired to bring them out.<\/p>\n Living in the wilderness is rough, too.\u00a0 The way WQ does it, you’re in the wilderness for 21 days, on the job 24\/7, with two weeks off between work periods.\u00a0 That’s 21 days completely cut off from the rest of civilization, out in the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n At the same time, though, that’s 21 days in which WQ pays for all your food and supplies–21 days in which you’re earning money instead of spending it.\u00a0 And then, after the 21 days are up, you’ve got two weeks of free time to do whatever you want.\u00a0 Pay ranges from $60 to $135 per day, multiplied by 21 days–not a bad job.\u00a0 And two weeks of complete freedom…<\/p>\n Perhaps the best advantage to this kind of job, though, is the incredible range of life experience it would give.\u00a0 Unlike sitting in an office all day, or doing telephone surveys at a call center (my current job), this kind of work offers some real meaningful experience.\u00a0 Changing people’s lives, seeing them at their best and worst, connecting with them in a truly genuine way–it could have a huge influence on my writing.<\/p>\n But then again–do the costs really outweigh the benefits?\u00a0 Maybe I could bring a notebook and write while out there.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll make up for the missed writing time in the two of weeks, while still having enough time to do my other chores.\u00a0 Maybe it will force me to make time.\u00a0 Maybe the improved quality will make up for it–and maybe my new friends in this apartment complex won’t totally forget me when I come back.<\/p>\n I don’t know.\u00a0 I’m trying to figure out if this is something I should do.\u00a0 Part of me wants to jump up and start right away–but the other half is holding back.\u00a0 But at this point, I’m thinking that once my Dad drives out to Utah to give me the old family Buick, I’m going to apply.\u00a0 I really should.\u00a0 Should I?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …and I’m kind of hesitant to answer. Four years ago, my sister went through Wilderness Quest, a wilderness therapy organization based in Monticello, Utah.\u00a0 At the end of the program, I went down with my whole family for family therapy.\u00a0 The experience was incredible–intense, emotional, and very life changing for all of us. Fast forward… Continue reading The wilderness is calling me…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[89,88,133,30,199,423,599,268,413,312,197],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-career-decisions","tag-doubts-and-fears","tag-family","tag-life-decisions","tag-questions","tag-wilderness","tag-thoughts-reflections","tag-time-management","tag-wilderness-quest","tag-work","tag-writing-lifestyle","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-yG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3013,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/3013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/photos-ak-sf2p\/v12\/116\/17\/17823603\/n17823603_30439646_4446.jpg\")
Then again, 21 days cut off from civilization…that’s 21 days in which I’m not going to be writing.\u00a0 21 days in which I’m not going to have a social life (at least, not in Provo).\u00a0 21 days in which I may miss other important career\/writing opportunities.\u00a0 And two weeks–that’s not really a lot of time, not when you’ve got all your chores to do.<\/p>\n