The Potential To Go On And Accomplish More: Life and Thoughts after Backcountry

"One idea that came to me around the time that our season was coming to an end and reached a climax around debriefing was the hope that Backcountry would not be the best thing any of us would ever do with our lives. While it was an incredible experience and something that I will always cherish and never regret, everyone in our crew had the strength and potential to go on and accomplish even more impressive things. But that fear seems totally unwarranted when you look at what many in our crew are doing now, whether it be traveling across Southeast Asia, Australia, or New Zealand, working as an engineer in the Appalachian Mountains, taking on Mt. San Jacinto, returning to Kings [Canyon] with NPS, or like you going to motherfucking Russia this year. Our season was great, but I can only begin to imagine what the future will bring for all of us. Yeah, they were right when they said we were "a good crew". "

 

Erik Pérez
2011 Americorps CCC Backcountry Trails Program - Kings Canyon National Park

4/9/12

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Gastronomic Diplomacy

We scoured the city looking for the ingredients. Marshmallows, check. Hersheys, check. No graham crackers, but we made a substitution with a similar type of cracker. Sitting with newly found friends of a variety of nationalities, makeshift fire made in a metal ash tray at a hostel in the middle of Bangkok. This is the part of American culture I love. Make s'mores, not wars.

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My Exit Speech

Camarillo, CA

 

I could stand here and tell you that I never thought I would be here, but that would be a blatant lie. It was indeed inevitable that I would be in the position that i am today. I have not done anything that anyone here could not have accomplished. I am not supernatural. If anything, I feel that I'm more human than I get recognition for. But, no man is an island, no man is self made. Rugged individualism is a glorious myth, for it takes an entire community, a society, to raise and form the thoughts and ideals of an individual. My story isn't new. A lot of us came from humble beginnings, needed to change the direction in which their life was going, or simply wanted a greener thumb. But what's adversity to someone who's determined? Adversity shouldn't drive us to fear, we should embrace it and realize that adversity only makes the story greater. The stars align for those who choose them to be. If you believe that something is, then it will be. There is no gang, no policy, no action that can stop you from achieving your dreams.

 

Jason

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