What I'm Currently...
- Reading: On Trails by Robert Moor
- Playing: Pokemon Heartgold
- Listening To: Chemical Light by Josie Edwards
- Working On: LARP Guild Activities
Things I Want to Share
I recently started on a journey that I expect is going to be interesting in the coming years: changing careers in my mid-30's. I've been considering it for a little while now and just started taking concrete steps this last week to actually accomplish it.
First I should say my background is in civil engineering, and I have been working in the public sector for about 5 years now. My job primarily consists of office work, reviewing construction drawings and civil plan sets for public and private construction projects on behalf of whichever city I worked for at that time. It's not a bad job by any means, and certainly has a lot of advantages over a lot of civil engineering jobs in the private sector, like the lack of overtime and significantly better job security. But 40 hours a week of office work staring at a computer screen has always felt off to me.
When I was in college, what really fascinated me were the classes that were only tangentially related to my civil engineering work: geology, biology, environmental science, basically anything that takes you outdoors and studying the natural world. I never seriously considered changing majors at the time since engineering was better-paying and had more job opportunities than any of those other interests, but I could never leave behind my interest in the natural world.
Now that I'm in a fairly secure place financially and think I'm finally done relocating every few years, I've decided to take steps to pursue where my true interests lie. Specifically, I am hoping to transition from my comfortable office engineering job to something along the lines of "Interpretive Ranger" or "Park Naturalist" (exact job title TBD). I'm taking the process slowly, but am making a roadmap to make sure progress doesn't halt and to get me where I want to be. That means keeping my current job for now and working towards my career move slowly over the next year or two. I'm still getting details ironed out, but my rough road map is:
- Phase 1 (now): Start volunteering and making connections
- Phase 2 (~3 months from now): Expand my knowledge. Learn to identify local trees, minerals, etc.
- Phase 3 (~6 months from now): Gain certifications. Wilderness First Aid, Missouri Master Naturalist, etc.
- Phase 4 (~1 year from now): Begin teaching. Shift some of my volunteer work to leading nature hikes, teaching map and compass, etc.
I'm hoping this will give me plenty of time and experience to determine for certain whether this move is right for me, and to increase my chances of getting a job I want if I decide to go down that route. I've already started on Phase 1; I have already been accepted by the Missouri State Parks department to volunteer at some of my local state park sites. I'm actually going to talk to one of the volunteer coordinators in just a few hours to determine what I can help with and what a realistic schedule looks like for me.
I'm sure this process is going to be full of twists and turns I can't possibly foresee yet, but I'm very excited to be starting down this trail and to have the support of the people closest to me. Look forward to lots of updates during the process and many more pictures from all the places where I will be volunteering, working, and exploring in the future!
Found Recently
Changelog
8/13/2026 - Added journal entry for Stemler Cave Woods
8/12/2026 - Added volunteer hour tracker to journal
8/9/2026 - Updated Things I Want to Share on homepage
8/7/2026 - Added books to Book Trail
8/6/2026 - Added Book Trail page
7/24/2026 - Added cassette behavior in tape shelf and updated currently listeneing to. now to add a bunch of mixtapes!
7/23/2026 - Added about page and started building music page
7/22/2026 - Added journal and initial entries
7/20/2026 - Created webpage