Would you look at that, the first new blog post in two months! As always, I didn’t intend to fall off the blog, but I needed to prioritize “real life” over blogging. Here’s a summary of what’s been happening:
For the first time since COVID, I’ve been in one place for more than a year. It’s strange – and not altogether pleasant – to no longer be enmeshed in constant drama, to have a routine, and not to have to worry about bears OR wildfires.
But fear not, I’ve filled all of my free time with self-imposed obligations, so that I still don’t have time to feel happy – otherwise I’d be a bad American. All of the projects that I’ve gotten myself involved in are good ones, but they’re leaving me drained, which means that I don’t have much energy for blogging.
I don’t want to disclose what most of those projects are: partially because it’s too early, and partially because I want to have more boundaries between my online and in-person lives. I will say, however, that one of the things I’ve been working on is writing down my memories from Montana.
It has occurred to me that I was in Montana during a unique period in history. It was the summer of 2021 – the midst of the COVID pandemic – which generated unprecedented levels of nature-based tourism in the Untied States. At the same time, multiple factors were pushing bears closer to human settlements, and continuing to help produce catastrophic wildfires. Since I was wrapped up in many of these dynamics, I’ve decided to record my experiences while I can still remember them.
More significant than my piddling, though, is that I’ve been working on changing careers. Based on experiences that I had in Colorado and Maine, I want to do more to help young adults: people aged approximately 18-30. I’ve been looking for ways to do this through the conservation/outdoors fields, but I’m not satisfied with my options.
Thus, I’ve started making moves back into the profession that I was originally studying for: mental health counseling. Planning for this transition has been occupying most of the time and energy that I used to devote to this blog, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Despite my excuses, I do have one feature post on the horizon that is nearly done. I have ideas for several more, but I don’t want to promise too much just yet. I’m thinking of focusing mostly on interview-based posts in the future, and expanding my genre to include nature-based topics in general; I’m hoping that this will help to make blogging fun again, since it will allow me to meet cool people who are doing cool things.
We’ll see what actually happens, though. I’m going to have to continue to prioritize my offline life for the foreseeable future, so I have no idea how frequently I’m going to post here.
The Jaguar 
:)
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