In high school, I worked two part time jobs and was perpetually stressed, even over the summer. Around March, I realised that I wanted time off before college. I wanted to get away. But where would I go? I’d always had an obsession with the state of Montana. What was in Montana? Well, Yellowstone National Park… I googled jobs and submitted an application without even proofreading. Three weeks later, I had to explain to my parents why I had a packet with a job offer in it, and I had to tell my bosses I was leaving three months earlier than planned. Three days after I graduated from high school, I was walking through the airport with my laptop and my guitar, waiting to board a plane to an entirely new world. Yellowstone changed me for the better. For the first time in years, I relaxed. It took me a while, but I made friends that I still keep in contact with today. I learned a lot about myself. I hiked for miles. The work sucked, but it was my first real minimum wage job and that, too was an experience. If it hadn’t been for my university scholarship, I would have stayed in Yellowstone longer. As it was, leaving was the hardest thing I’d ever done.
Two days after I left Yellowstone in 2013, I’d applied for summer of 2014, and to my excitement, I was interviewed for and given a job as a gift shop girl. I was scared that a second season wouldn’t be as good as the first, but if anything, it was better. I’d learned a lot about myself in the year between, and I was more outgoing and more eager to hike with every free second I had. My best friends from the previous season all came back, and I made another set of fantastic friends, and I was about as happy as I get.
Interested in working in a park yourself? You should do it!