I've been in the military for a little more than 10 years now, and while it's done a great job of providing for my family, and other personal things like education (11 more classes till my BA in Environmental Studies is finished!) I find myself living just for the weekends where I can do something that I actually love. I might have loved the military at one point, but after so long with it and being tired of the lifestyle it's hard to look back fondly on it. I won't say I've had it hard in the military, in fact it's been a fairly easy ride compared to many I've served with. The issue I've struggled with is that I don't have the same connection in it any longer. I dream on a daily basis of ways I could spend my time in different way. The amount of times I've googled how to make a living hiking is rather embarrassing to be honest. I often get back to the same results of go become a Forester, Park Ranger, get sponsored by outdoor gear companies or a variety of other ideas. None of those really come easy though. I'd need to take a rather big pay cut to get into the first and eventually I'd likely start making close to the same or even more if I went far enough with it. If it was just me, it's not something that would be that hard to do though. I'd be find living out of a little camper or a tiny house for a while until I could afford something a little nicer (though a good tiny house does sound great long term too.) The problem with those is I've got a family who have some expectations of how a standard of living should be, and camper is out of the question, and a tiny house would certainly put a strain on them in ways it wouldn't for me. So where exactly is the balance to be found? It's not that I have no options on this, there are still choices I can make, but the process of making one is always going to be the harder part. I've been asked to create a ten year plan for my career and I just honestly don't know where I'll go with it. It's easy to simply say all the right things of where you want to be, but it's just not factual. Often if feel like we're expected to know where we want our whole lives to go before people even graduate from high school, but even at nearly 35 I still don't know where I want my whole life to go. But maybe that's okay too. So often everyone gets wrapped up in where we're headed, that we don't take any time to enjoy where we are at. Thankfully I get to take the weekend and go on a short backpacking trip and take in the trees that will be around me. We're not headed that far, just 11 miles in camping for the night and then another 11 out. I'll make sure to write about the trip next week with some pictures of the area for anyone reading. <\/p>
I would still choose the life I have with my family over a life hiking without them, but I do thing about what exactly I would give up in exchange for the ability to hike more. One of the big things that helps with the idea of staying in the military still is that I'll be able to get a pension out of it and be done working in 10 years from now. It would allow me to spend most every day hiking while my kids are at school and my wife works towards her goals. And I won't lie that sounds like a pretty promising deal, but will I feel satisfied with that decision in the long run? As I mentioned before the reason I started with store was to help do something about deforestation and there are careers that would make me work much later in life, and may or may not mean a lot less hiking in the long run but I could feel a larger amount of difference in what I'm doing with my life. Of course there are always compromises to me made in life and there are options for this as well, but it goes back to the question of what am I trading in this exchange?<\/p>","urlTitle":"living-in-nature","url":"\/blog\/living-in-nature\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/living-in-nature\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/rtnapparel.com\/blog\/living-in-nature\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1620921294,"updatedAt":1620922331,"publishedAt":1620922331,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":135214,"name":"Return to Nature Apparel"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/wdl8w2blvdgsiqvmi8uq2ncm9yiyhhrilohuzj8qddf3l6uu.png","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/wdl8w2blvdgsiqvmi8uq2ncm9yiyhhrilohuzj8qddf3l6uu.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/wdl8w2blvdgsiqvmi8uq2ncm9yiyhhrilohuzj8qddf3l6uu.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"Hiking, Camping, Forestry","metaDescription":"How would you like to make a living in nature, what would you give up in return?","series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":11299,"title":"After thoughts","url":"\/blog\/curbing-expectations\/","urlTitle":"curbing-expectations","division":135214,"description":"Thoughts about where this will go, and where I will go.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/pnd4syfgfqttkr3ztk6sherqd4o6zqq23uig7rigiux08g0f.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/pnd4syfgfqttkr3ztk6sherqd4o6zqq23uig7rigiux08g0f.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":11651,"title":"First donation complete! And backpacking was a great trip","url":"\/blog\/first-donation-complete\/","urlTitle":"first-donation-complete","division":135214,"description":"So I got the first income from the shirts and 1 mask sold and was able to do my first donation with all your help","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/vmhp4kkjruiko7jp4jdswwdfpfsuyzpv3iotkotuthleu4jl.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/vmhp4kkjruiko7jp4jdswwdfpfsuyzpv3iotkotuthleu4jl.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":11193,"title":"Opening up shop","url":"\/blog\/opening-up-shop\/","urlTitle":"opening-up-shop","division":135214,"description":"Welcome to my shop, I hope we get to know each other well!","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/y5lnhwimsvn68c0wqe3p0v0vqctstbsykgjxt3eq4slycbhq.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/y5lnhwimsvn68c0wqe3p0v0vqctstbsykgjxt3eq4slycbhq.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}