So what do some of the most fun, creative and energetic people do when they’re not teaching at Avid 4 Adventure? If my coworkers are anything like me, they are likely to spend a lot of time scheming. Good scheming, of course. The type of clever planning that allows them the maximum vacation time while meeting the basic requirements of life. You see, there exists a core of individuals that have found the greatest experiences in life often have to do with nature. Time spent camping, climbing, biking or paddling is the time against which we measure all other moments. It’s a healthy addiction. It’s a great time. And most importantly, it makes us who we are.
I have two resumes. The first resume lists things like “Lived in Bolivia for a year” and “Climbed the Grand Teton via five distinct routes.” It talks about the events that have made my life worth living. It discusses ice climbing, particular sunsets, days of depending upon a climbing partner on remote granite domes. It uses adjectives like “spectacular” and adverbial sentence fragments like “recklessly beautiful.” It employs phrases like “life-changing experience” and “integration of profound wisdom.” This is the resume I hope people will read at my funeral, so they understand that I lived and loved life. Many people don’t understand this resume.
The other resume is drier. It has bolded categories in uninteresting, conservative fonts. The categories are predictable: Education, Career Objective, Work Experience, Noteworthy Skills. Most of it is in 12-point Times New Roman and is boring. Don’t mistake me, it’s sincere. However, if you look carefully you’ll notice something curious. It appears that the longest job I kept fell shy of a year. You’ll also notice extensive gaps of time between jobs. But if you held both resumes side by side you’d see that they fit together seamlessly, like the cliché drawing of the two halves of a broken heart.
There is a problem, though. I may be the only person who has seen both resumes side by side. If you could see both resumes and you cared about the outdoors you’d seen an interesting pattern. (Pay attention! This is where the good scheming comes in.) Five months working with children at a ski resort childcare center followed by two weeks climbing in Utah. Six months at a work-training program for teens followed three months in Ecuador. Four months teaching Spanish to elementary students followed by one week of mountain biking in Jackson, Wyoming. Repeat.
If I may continue speaking for my coworkers, it seems that a career path that only offers us two to three weeks of vacation time is entirely insufficient. How were we supposed to get good at having fun? Part-time and seasonal employment suits us much better; camp life and guiding is the best. Working with youth who are just beginning to discover the joy and freedom of safe outdoor recreation is like looking into a mirror that hurls us back into our personal history. It reminds us of how precious life experience is. It reminds us of growing up and not knowing a lot of things. It reminds of us the glorious paths of learning that lies ahead of the students and ourselves.
In truth, I don’t have two written resumes. But I do constantly plan trips that often lead me to my deeper self while simultaneously drawing me further away from a clean, gapless working history. Still, it’s important to note that outdoor education sums up everything that ever seemed important in life. Outdoors and education. I’m currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Education at Colorado University. I just finished a nine-month employment stint with the Boulder Valley School District – followed by ten days of rock climbing in Nevada. Currently I tutor Spanish, Math, English and Cornell note taking skills.
If there is anything more important than riding my mountain bike or climbing a difficult route, it’s teaching the next generation the skills I have accrued. And I plan on teaching the love of the outdoors in every future gap in my resume.
Erik Dutilly is a 1st year staff with Avid4 Adventure. When he is not climbing, biking, or playing outside, Erik may be tutoring teens or teaching Spanish.
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