Plans for my future

If you are like most people. Your parents had plans for your future.

My parents planned not only my future but every step of the way.

I was not a rebellious child I would conform to what I was told and accepted my parents guild to everything I did. The problem with that is when it is time to decide for yourself. I felt like I had been a robot programmed to do only what my parents deem acceptable.

We belong to a tribe. The wisdom of our elders is cherished above any outside knowledge. Our Chief is very old but still in sound mind and body. The pond in our village is about 1/4 mile across. The chief swims every morning weather permitting. If you want to talk with him you must get up at daybreak and join him swimming across the pond and back. Today I made the swim with him. I ask him for his wisdom on my future. My parents planned for me to be a dentist. I have attended the community college and it is time to move into a larger school that can give me a degree in dentistry. The Chief has told me "No"! He has told me I am no longer a boy. You are a man. I must take time for myself and make decisions base on who I am as a man. For the next year I am not allowed to ask my parents for any advise. I must make my own choices. Where I should go. Where I should work. where I should live. The Chief told me I can then return and ask again.

To my knowledge everyone in our tribe has there own quest. The timing is different and the quest they must fulfill different. It is tailored to each members strengths and weakness. It is not always shared with the whole tribe. The one I remembered most was my younger sisters. She was the wild child got caught doing all the wrong things at a young age. I love her but, never understood the rebellion. She is Polar opposite of me in almost everyway. Very out spoken and sure of herself. She told me that when she went to talk to the Chief when she was 16. She asked him to allow her to marry her boyfriend. The Chief told her she must first spend 90 days doing everything her boyfriend told her to do no matter how silly. She agreed to do so and told her boyfriend what the Chief had said. It lasted 5 days and the relationship was over. They both went separate ways in life. Found that there was almost nothing in common with each other. Her boyfriend went into acting and modeling. My sister is now a member of the tribal counsel and teaches Marital Arts classes to the entire tribe young and old. A great honor for someone who just turn 20.

I have a mixture of emotions from total empowerment to scared to death. So Where do I start? Do I change where I live? I live in a small flat that my Aunt provided for me to go to the community college. I secretly dislike everything about it. Next to the railroad tracks and across from the freeway. The noise never ends. I would rather live somewhere away from the city. I am a quiet person but I do not like being alone. I have a few friends but, no one close. I want to be apart of something that is away from any town. I still want to be around people. I just want them to be a small group I am working with.

The Guadalupe Mountains Nation Park come to mind.

I remember as a boy reading about a job there. You are with a crew who goes in and repairs the trails for hikers. You have to hike into the mountains. You are in the wild for three weeks at a time. The pay wasn't great and you had to buy your supplies for the whole year. I was too young at the time and too timid to ask. I am not athletic. Yet, I yearn for the outdoors and the chance to be a part of a working crew. This will be the first carrier change I have made without asking anyone for permission. I am not one who has been in the wild. I have no idea all the skills I will need to succeed.

I make a call to the National Park Service and there is a position open. I filled out the paperwork online. There is a list of everything I will need before coming. I was told that training was OJT (on the Job) I just had to commit for a one year stay. It is going to take all my savings to buy the equipment and supplies I will need. This is the best day of my life. The excitement of finding a job on my own and a new place to live is the most pleasing thing I have ever felt.

This probably sound very child like to you. I have always follow someone else. It like a dream to me.

I told the Chief this and he responded this is a wise choice. My brothers and sisters are in disbelief that I would want to do such a thing. My parents remain silent honoring the chiefs request. The next year will be a test given to myself. Will I be able to make the right choices? Am I ready to deal with the consequences of those choices? I am proud that I live within a tribe that follows a belief that each person should make there own way in life. I am also humble by the support of those who hardly even know me within the tribe. So I ask you. Do you have a tribe? Do you honor those around you by allowing them to chose from themselves. Go ask you chief !