By Isaac Grayson
I have been working on my resume lately. I feel like have a
very strange work history, but the skills I was able to learn I believe have
helped during my school and will continue to direct me during my career.
After
my first year of college I was looking for an escape from the long studio
nights and hours of huddling over a drafting board and operating a computer. I
have always longed for outdoor experiences and as such I looked for a job that
would get me outside. I happened upon the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program
out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Here I really got to experience being part
of a team as we worked as a trail crew traveling through Colorado doing various
jobs for different Forest Service Districts.
The
first day I had showed up late because of flight scheduling difficulties and
just walked up to the first group I saw and they told me I was in their group.
So without question I put my bag on the trailer got in the van and we were off.
That was the start of a great summer where I lived out of a tent in in constant
contact with these eight people. I learned a lot about group dynamics and team operations
this first summer. It is a very different experience to not only work with
these people but to wake up and have breakfast with them, commute to the work
site together and then return to camp to create dinner and participate in group
discussions or educational programs.
Very
quickly you develop and intimate trust and family level of friendship with
these people. But there are always issues to work through. The summer always
starts really well everyone is nice and does a good job of keeping their
civilized face on so as not to offend anyone. But after a couple of week’s
people tend to get real and misery really brings out peoples true character.
Most often our misery came in the form of rain and lightning. I have spent several
hours squatting under a short tree or out in the open when I lighting storm
rolls up on us.
It may sound strange to squat
during a storm but the reason ultimately comes down to safety. We work in very
remote areas, hours away from medical care, utilizing metal tools to carve the
earth into an appropriate path. When out in the open we are a lightning magnet.
So we throw our tool far away and either squat into lighting position or hid
under an average sized tree and wait the storm out. Inevitably this lightning
storm is followed by rain, then a sharp drop in temperature and something’s
graupel.
Cold, wet, and tired will make
people real very quickly. When this happens you really learn to deal with
people at their worst. This requires extensive communication on varying levels.
No matter how much communication occurs there will always be conflict. This
experience was really beneficial because when conflict occurred I had to be
dealt with. Living in this intimate setting conflict must be addressed at some
point or else the whole group dynamics will unravel.
I believe these skills have been
useful in navigating studio culture. We may not live in confines as intimate as
I did out in Colorado but there are times when studio feels very small. This is
especially true when a conflict is occurring. But having the maturity and
responsibility to deal with it proves beneficial to everyone and can really
create a beautiful place to work and live.
More on lighting position see below: http://www.nols.edu/nolspro/pdf/OutdoorLightningRiskManagement-Gookin.pdf
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment