How my life trajectory shifted direction in November 2016
Prior to the US election in November of 2016 I had the next 5-10 years of my life planned. Not every single detail, but I knew where I was going and what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to graduate from OSU with a BS in Fisheries & Wildlife Science. I was going to get summer tech positions all over the US working as a field technician collecting samples, and cataloging plants, and electroshocking fish (hopefully not), collaring bobcats if I was lucky... I was going to have adventures and make connections with professionals in my career field. I was going to work my but off moving every six months, saving up for grad school and trying to get into one eventually. After grad school I was going to hopefully get a more permanent job, preferably somewhere in the PNW, Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, etc... doing something in the field of predator-livestock conflict management (if I was super lucky). I was going to make a difference, I was going to try to change people's views on predators and hopefully convince them to try non-lethal control methods. I was going to be a badass female in a field and region usually dominated by men, and hopefully make a difference in the world.
And then Donald Trump won the US Election. Aside from the whole civil rights, women's rights, social rights consequences of this new management of the US, my career field is in crisis. Environmentalists in general are seeing a bleak future for their professions and careers, but people who are in or are looking to gain entry to government organizations that deal with land management, resource management, clean energy, and environmental issues in general are now facing massive changes in their futures as well. When I graduated, I was going to apply for jobs with the Forest Service, Fisheries and Wildlife departments, Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, Park Service, etc... Now that is not likely to land me even an entry level position.
We all know republicans are fond of "small government", whatever that load of tripe means. They want to take control away from the federal level ad give back control to individual states. This "small government" idea will cripple country-wide environmental work. And it will cripple important departments nested in government. Sure, each state has it's own "fisheries and wildlife department", but they are funded, organized, and staffed by the federal sector of the Department of the Interior. Shave off funding for that, and the state departments will collapse.
For years, young up-and-coming wildlife techs have been told that the "old boys club" will be retiring soon. And now they finally are. The baby boomers are almost all reaching retirement now and leaving these government positions. There is finally the possibility of promotion to long-term positions. People who have been doing tech jobs for 5+ years can now move into management positions, research director positions, department management, and other positions that are longer than 6 month gigs. And because those seasoned techs are moving up, there's entry level positions for people coming out of college. My generation actually has a shot at getting a job. And all that hope and excitement is now gone. When baby boomers retire, they won't be replaced. That's how republicans in the past have operated. When the federal employees in management positions retire, they don't replace them. They don't hire new blood. They just shave down the department until it's so small it doesn't have a prayer of doing anything useful. And all those hopeful young people that spent 4 years in college, $20,000+ on university fees (and that's at the low end of costs), worked their butts off every summer in volunteer positions for professors and grad students - barely making enough to pay rent, let along pay off student loans - all those people are going to be unemployed. Or at least unemployed in their field.
There is some hope in the private sector. Non-profit and NGO's have made mention that there is a possibility that a lot more individual donation funding will start flowing into them to offset the lack of interest within the government to protect the environment. Therefore, people who care about the environment will pour money into these NGO's to try and combat dangerous coal and oil interests of the new government. As these organizations grow they'll hire people who know how the system works, and independent research will flourish. But this isn't going to happen nearly fast enough to offset the number of people who are going to be out of work now. People like me are not going to have a future in this "new and great america".
My future here in the US is shot to hell. The country I was born in, the country I grew up in, the country I watched from a young age be torn apart by the selfish republican interests in middle eastern oil under the Bush administration. And then Obama happened and suddenly I had a future. The Obama administration has mitigated the damage of Bush, has reduced unemployment, brought the US back from the brink of complete collapse. And now, after 8 years of hope and progress, we're going to backslide about 10 years in the next 4 under Trump's administration. My future career chances are gone. My 5-10 year plan is going to have to wait. 3 months ago I knew how my life was going to go. And now I get to struggle all over again to figure out what the fuck to do with my life.
I cannot exist in this country under a Trump Administration. I want to be the person that stays and fights. I want to stand up for civil rights, women's rights, environmental issues... I want to march in protests and vote locally, create civil disobedience, stand up for what is right, counter racist, sexist, homophobic motherfuckers that have the audacity to publicly try to intimidate others. I want to be the kind of person who fights back. But in 3 months I already feel completely hopeless and Trump hasn't even been inaugurated yet. Every news feed about his cabinet members, every tweet by him, every nasty person celebrating the new government, every announcement about repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood, and I feel like i'm drowning in despair. I feel completely hopeless and scared shitless and I don't think I can live like this for 4 years. I can't deal with this crushing fear and hopelessness, watching people get hurt, watching people die and struggle and the environment become even more damaged and have to listen to people who care about nothing other than money running the government. I know myself pretty well, and I know my limits. Mentally, I don't think I can handle living with this kind of stress and depression day in day out for 4 years.
I need to do something useful with my life. I need to be a force for good out there in the world making a difference, however small it may be. I need to help people somehow, alleviate hardships somewhere in the world, be a symbol that not every american is a fucking selfish uneducated pig. So I applied to the Peace Corps. I am hoping to hell that I get in, that they send me to Paraguay to do something environmental or agricultural. Living in a local community, using my degree to help other people and the environment at the same time, learning a new culture, learning about people and their lives, experiencing things I would never encounter in the US. An added bonus would be a nearly complete media blackout. It's unlikely i'll have access to Facebook, unlikely that i'll be bombarded by more bad news about whatever shit Trump has done next, unlikely that I'll be faced with constant depression and hopelessness. I can exist for 2.5 years in a place where my presence is a help, not a hinderance, gaining experience, hopefully impacting other people's lives in a good way, and keeping myself sane until the 2020 election.
I want to be a fighter and stick it out, adding my voice to the majority of americans that did not want Trump as their new dictator. I want to, but I know that's not in me. I'm not strong enough to do that for 4 years. Just as I knew I couldn't be an environmental lawyer in the US with our already fucked up government, I can't stick around here for 4 years. So I'm going, getting out of dodge and keeping myself strong and healthy until I can come back and live in a country that has the same values that I have, that supports all it's citizens, that cares about the vulnerable people in society, that cares about the environment, not just increasing politicians bank accounts...
We all know republicans are fond of "small government", whatever that load of tripe means. They want to take control away from the federal level ad give back control to individual states. This "small government" idea will cripple country-wide environmental work. And it will cripple important departments nested in government. Sure, each state has it's own "fisheries and wildlife department", but they are funded, organized, and staffed by the federal sector of the Department of the Interior. Shave off funding for that, and the state departments will collapse.
For years, young up-and-coming wildlife techs have been told that the "old boys club" will be retiring soon. And now they finally are. The baby boomers are almost all reaching retirement now and leaving these government positions. There is finally the possibility of promotion to long-term positions. People who have been doing tech jobs for 5+ years can now move into management positions, research director positions, department management, and other positions that are longer than 6 month gigs. And because those seasoned techs are moving up, there's entry level positions for people coming out of college. My generation actually has a shot at getting a job. And all that hope and excitement is now gone. When baby boomers retire, they won't be replaced. That's how republicans in the past have operated. When the federal employees in management positions retire, they don't replace them. They don't hire new blood. They just shave down the department until it's so small it doesn't have a prayer of doing anything useful. And all those hopeful young people that spent 4 years in college, $20,000+ on university fees (and that's at the low end of costs), worked their butts off every summer in volunteer positions for professors and grad students - barely making enough to pay rent, let along pay off student loans - all those people are going to be unemployed. Or at least unemployed in their field.
There is some hope in the private sector. Non-profit and NGO's have made mention that there is a possibility that a lot more individual donation funding will start flowing into them to offset the lack of interest within the government to protect the environment. Therefore, people who care about the environment will pour money into these NGO's to try and combat dangerous coal and oil interests of the new government. As these organizations grow they'll hire people who know how the system works, and independent research will flourish. But this isn't going to happen nearly fast enough to offset the number of people who are going to be out of work now. People like me are not going to have a future in this "new and great america".
My future here in the US is shot to hell. The country I was born in, the country I grew up in, the country I watched from a young age be torn apart by the selfish republican interests in middle eastern oil under the Bush administration. And then Obama happened and suddenly I had a future. The Obama administration has mitigated the damage of Bush, has reduced unemployment, brought the US back from the brink of complete collapse. And now, after 8 years of hope and progress, we're going to backslide about 10 years in the next 4 under Trump's administration. My future career chances are gone. My 5-10 year plan is going to have to wait. 3 months ago I knew how my life was going to go. And now I get to struggle all over again to figure out what the fuck to do with my life.
I cannot exist in this country under a Trump Administration. I want to be the person that stays and fights. I want to stand up for civil rights, women's rights, environmental issues... I want to march in protests and vote locally, create civil disobedience, stand up for what is right, counter racist, sexist, homophobic motherfuckers that have the audacity to publicly try to intimidate others. I want to be the kind of person who fights back. But in 3 months I already feel completely hopeless and Trump hasn't even been inaugurated yet. Every news feed about his cabinet members, every tweet by him, every nasty person celebrating the new government, every announcement about repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood, and I feel like i'm drowning in despair. I feel completely hopeless and scared shitless and I don't think I can live like this for 4 years. I can't deal with this crushing fear and hopelessness, watching people get hurt, watching people die and struggle and the environment become even more damaged and have to listen to people who care about nothing other than money running the government. I know myself pretty well, and I know my limits. Mentally, I don't think I can handle living with this kind of stress and depression day in day out for 4 years.
I need to do something useful with my life. I need to be a force for good out there in the world making a difference, however small it may be. I need to help people somehow, alleviate hardships somewhere in the world, be a symbol that not every american is a fucking selfish uneducated pig. So I applied to the Peace Corps. I am hoping to hell that I get in, that they send me to Paraguay to do something environmental or agricultural. Living in a local community, using my degree to help other people and the environment at the same time, learning a new culture, learning about people and their lives, experiencing things I would never encounter in the US. An added bonus would be a nearly complete media blackout. It's unlikely i'll have access to Facebook, unlikely that i'll be bombarded by more bad news about whatever shit Trump has done next, unlikely that I'll be faced with constant depression and hopelessness. I can exist for 2.5 years in a place where my presence is a help, not a hinderance, gaining experience, hopefully impacting other people's lives in a good way, and keeping myself sane until the 2020 election.
I want to be a fighter and stick it out, adding my voice to the majority of americans that did not want Trump as their new dictator. I want to, but I know that's not in me. I'm not strong enough to do that for 4 years. Just as I knew I couldn't be an environmental lawyer in the US with our already fucked up government, I can't stick around here for 4 years. So I'm going, getting out of dodge and keeping myself strong and healthy until I can come back and live in a country that has the same values that I have, that supports all it's citizens, that cares about the vulnerable people in society, that cares about the environment, not just increasing politicians bank accounts...
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