Always be Training

[The following was written on May 27]

Time is weird here. It does this thing that causes me to lose track of the days completely. I would have no chance of telling you the day of the week and it simultaneously feels like I’ve been here for two months and two days.

So the bulk of what I’ve been spending my time doing is classroom training. The rest of the conservation staff arrived and things are in full swing. Our department numbers a little less than 100 staff members during the summer. We’ve spent the last two days in 8-5 classroom training with them and in the upcoming days we will be doing field training with them as well. For field training we are mixed up between the different concentrations in the department. So I for example, who am in the Environmental Education part of conservation is in a training division with people who fill entirely different jobs within the same department. This is a great way to get to know people who you might not get to spend a lot of time with for the rest of the summer. It can also be a bit weird to be thrust into this group. For four days we will be in these training divisions in the field doing trail building work. Directly after this all-encompassing conservation field training, we will move directly into EE specific field training.

Training is great for getting our feet on the ground. We get to meet others from all over the department and try out some of our lessons. It’s definitely a lot, but I’m certain that the rewards will be reaped at the end of the summer when Sarah Cobb and I led the most epic ROCS trek ever (shout out to Sarah Cobb, I know you’re reading this).