and these are the days of our lives...

I am so tired of this soap opera. I am ready for a change. I am one of the few people that actually enjoys the front desk job at Zion Lodge, but I am tired of fake people. There are some people I am going to miss so much when I move next Friday, but too many people know the secret- that we are only here for a few months and we get to be whatever fantasy characters we want to be for those few months and rumors are meant to be spread because there's nothing else to talk about. I hope this is a good change for me.

I will be working at the entrance station to the park now. Yes, I have to wear the offical park ranger getup, with the ugly green pants pulled up way too high and the silly smokey the bear hat falling over my eyes. My friends here from the Lodge are going to fly past the entrance station now yelling "Traitor!" But the good side of all this... I get to have a change. I get to be a park ranger. I will be in the park service, which means I can transfer to one closer to home pretty easily. And I will be paid more than twice what I get at the lodge. The money thing was honestly the last thing I realized about this job. I never expected to make much money in life. This will be a convenient side-note... a very convenient one.

All this came about in such an odd way. A park ranger named Sam gave me an application one day, saying I'd really enjoy this job. I had never talked to Sam about my job or any desires to leave it or work for the Park Service, though I did want to get in. So I thought about filling it out, missed the due date, woke up the following Monday and decided what the heck, I'll turn in something just to say I did. I half-heartedly filled some stuff out, made some type of resume, and went to the office to turn it in. When I walked in, I changed my mind and said, "you know what? nevermind. I don't want to waste your time with this because I just realized I'd have no place to live even if you hired me. Could you just keep this till this fall maybe when you can offer housing?" A few days later I get a call saying they found housing and they need me to work now. So I debated forever and was discussing it with one of my managers one day and I told him how I just really need to know the reason why Sam gave me the application in the first place. That would help me decide. If it was just some gut feeling, I'd give all this a second look. I trust gut. I turned around and walking straight toward the desk was Sam. And the first words he says to me are, "You know Juli? I really think you need to take this job. I didn't tell you, but I just had a feeling about it. That's why I gave you the application. There was no real reason, just a gut feeling."

I took the job.