Meander:
1.)To follow a winding and turning course; streams tend to meander through level land
2.)To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction; vagabonds meandering through life
To say that the past fifteen years of my life has taken a meandering characteristic would be an understatement. Starting after the dissolution of my marriage in 1997, I took to living a lifestyle similar to that of a vagabond, blowing about with the seasons of the year while pursuing a passion of hiking and outdoor adventure. I was 36 years old when this new phase of my life began and I had never expected it to become a career path.
Initially, I worked at a wilderness lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee near my hometown of Sevierville. Time and opportunity took me to places as varied as the swamps of south Florida to the boreal forests of northern Maine.
For the better part of 14 years, I found myself living in either a tent, a vehicle of some sort or in some sort of employer provided lodging. In 2010, I officially became homeless and wound up at a VA hospital in a program for homeless veterans. It was at this point that I started the process to attempt some changes that were long overdue.
As of the first day of 2011, I began working for the National Park Service in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. There have been quite a few changes as a result of this position, and reaching the milestone of my fiftieth birthday this past April has caused me to pause, reflect and evaluate on not only where I have been, but where I go from here as well.
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