About Face!
Soooo...it looks like I will spend most of 2018 living in Washington State.
I felt to a degree I had left the "rat race" in 2015. At least, I no longer had a daily grind...I had different grinds on different days. But I enjoyed all of them and they were a choice. In these 2+ years I was a nanny driving kids to their extracurricular activities. I worked on various Natural Performance Rehab, LLC. projects, started online coaching, and enjoyed the laid-back Army reserve life. I ran ultras more, traveled more, camped more, fished more, and started obstacle course racing. I even competed on national television and managed to sustain a concussion without serious side effects. And I finally finished my first 100-mile run! I also left the country for the first time on my own dime (if driving to Canada counts). I started longboarding.
And I did something else I never thought I'd do again before age 60...I sat in the sunshine in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, doing absolutely nothing and felt good about it.
This March will be my Army 10-year anniversary and overall it has been a wild ride. I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to attend the Army-Baylor Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy (i.e. an all-expenses paid chronic stress-response in exchange for no student loans). Active duty taught me a great deal about what I valued as an adult human in the modern world. At times it was very difficult but as an officer I was always compensated well in terms of pay and benefits. I just knew that I needed more balance in my life. I knew that my work as a physical therapist was not the only part of me that I wanted to explore. So in 2015 I transferred to the Army Reserves joining a Medical Backfill Battalion unit in Denver. At the very least, if I hated it, I knew it was temporary. I also had affordable healthcare in the meantime.
I had set in my mind a pretty clear picture of what it would take for me to volunteer leaving my current lifestyle for a stent on active duty again. Firstly, when a person joins the reserves it's important to realize that the Army can at any point send him/her anywhere the Army dictates. The main difference is that a person is more likely to have stability as far as deployment and involuntary mobilizations as a reservist. Being a senior Captain, one of my criteria for mobilization was that I would be promoted to Major prior to mobilizing. No surprise here...it just means I would get paid more for my time. My second stipulation was that I would mobilize to either Fort Carson (so I wouldn't have to move) or to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State (because it's beautiful and I have friends there). Europe or Hawaii would have sufficed as well, but the issue there is that it is more difficult to travel to see family or friends (or deal with emergencies).
Then both of those things happened within 10 days.
First, getting promoted to Major. I figured I would make Major next year according to promotion timelines but I ended up getting picked up a year early. The very next week I receive an email from the Specialist Corps Reserve Chief that a last-minute position had opened up at JBLM. They had a backfill therapist in-line to take the position, but something undisclosed to me happened and the therapist is no longer coming. The email said all curriculum vitaes would be due in two days.
So I thought about it all evening before I went to bed. All the pros and cons. Then I went to sleep. I woke up early the next morning so I could get to drill in Denver on time. As I sipped my coffee and booted my MacBook, in a sleepy hazy I thought to myself, why not apply? I really had two days to decide if I was truly interested, I could always say no if I changed my mind. So I sent my CV, closed my laptop, and drove to Denver. Later in the morning I received an email in response to set up a phone interview and an hour later I had the interview. During the interview I was told I was the frontrunner, but with another day to submit applications, I had to wait until Monday to know for sure. Yesterday I received another email stating I'd be chosen for the mobilization. Now I await orders for it to be official.
When I drove to Squamish this summer, I never imagined it would have served as a "recon" for a temporary move. I fell in love with the terrain, the fauna, the landscape, and the coast. I knew I would be back, I just didn't know it would be this soon and for this long. Most likely I will start the job in early-to-mid February and head back to Colorado next November.
Maybe I'll have more to write about...maybe some west coast adventures? I plan to take advantage of every weekend I am there assuming the roads are safe enough to get around through the spring. I still don't have many details, like where I will live and if I will keep my apartment here in the Springs. I want to keep my apartment since it's so cheap and I have the best landlord on the face of the earth. But it is a little too early to say. I hope to fly back at least a few times to complete as many Leadville race events as possible (I registered for Leadwoman prior to taking this job). While I will miss my friends here in the Springs, this mobilization will benefit me in a variety of ways. Ultimately it will get me a little outside my comfort zone, benefit my reserve career, my retirement paycheck, allow me to save a lot of money, and also allow me to cheaply explore an entirely new part of the country.
I'll try to update here as everything unfolds.
Major Wood Out.
I felt to a degree I had left the "rat race" in 2015. At least, I no longer had a daily grind...I had different grinds on different days. But I enjoyed all of them and they were a choice. In these 2+ years I was a nanny driving kids to their extracurricular activities. I worked on various Natural Performance Rehab, LLC. projects, started online coaching, and enjoyed the laid-back Army reserve life. I ran ultras more, traveled more, camped more, fished more, and started obstacle course racing. I even competed on national television and managed to sustain a concussion without serious side effects. And I finally finished my first 100-mile run! I also left the country for the first time on my own dime (if driving to Canada counts). I started longboarding.
And I did something else I never thought I'd do again before age 60...I sat in the sunshine in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, doing absolutely nothing and felt good about it.
This March will be my Army 10-year anniversary and overall it has been a wild ride. I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to attend the Army-Baylor Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy (i.e. an all-expenses paid chronic stress-response in exchange for no student loans). Active duty taught me a great deal about what I valued as an adult human in the modern world. At times it was very difficult but as an officer I was always compensated well in terms of pay and benefits. I just knew that I needed more balance in my life. I knew that my work as a physical therapist was not the only part of me that I wanted to explore. So in 2015 I transferred to the Army Reserves joining a Medical Backfill Battalion unit in Denver. At the very least, if I hated it, I knew it was temporary. I also had affordable healthcare in the meantime.
I had set in my mind a pretty clear picture of what it would take for me to volunteer leaving my current lifestyle for a stent on active duty again. Firstly, when a person joins the reserves it's important to realize that the Army can at any point send him/her anywhere the Army dictates. The main difference is that a person is more likely to have stability as far as deployment and involuntary mobilizations as a reservist. Being a senior Captain, one of my criteria for mobilization was that I would be promoted to Major prior to mobilizing. No surprise here...it just means I would get paid more for my time. My second stipulation was that I would mobilize to either Fort Carson (so I wouldn't have to move) or to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State (because it's beautiful and I have friends there). Europe or Hawaii would have sufficed as well, but the issue there is that it is more difficult to travel to see family or friends (or deal with emergencies).
Then both of those things happened within 10 days.
First, getting promoted to Major. I figured I would make Major next year according to promotion timelines but I ended up getting picked up a year early. The very next week I receive an email from the Specialist Corps Reserve Chief that a last-minute position had opened up at JBLM. They had a backfill therapist in-line to take the position, but something undisclosed to me happened and the therapist is no longer coming. The email said all curriculum vitaes would be due in two days.
So I thought about it all evening before I went to bed. All the pros and cons. Then I went to sleep. I woke up early the next morning so I could get to drill in Denver on time. As I sipped my coffee and booted my MacBook, in a sleepy hazy I thought to myself, why not apply? I really had two days to decide if I was truly interested, I could always say no if I changed my mind. So I sent my CV, closed my laptop, and drove to Denver. Later in the morning I received an email in response to set up a phone interview and an hour later I had the interview. During the interview I was told I was the frontrunner, but with another day to submit applications, I had to wait until Monday to know for sure. Yesterday I received another email stating I'd be chosen for the mobilization. Now I await orders for it to be official.
When I drove to Squamish this summer, I never imagined it would have served as a "recon" for a temporary move. I fell in love with the terrain, the fauna, the landscape, and the coast. I knew I would be back, I just didn't know it would be this soon and for this long. Most likely I will start the job in early-to-mid February and head back to Colorado next November.
Maybe I'll have more to write about...maybe some west coast adventures? I plan to take advantage of every weekend I am there assuming the roads are safe enough to get around through the spring. I still don't have many details, like where I will live and if I will keep my apartment here in the Springs. I want to keep my apartment since it's so cheap and I have the best landlord on the face of the earth. But it is a little too early to say. I hope to fly back at least a few times to complete as many Leadville race events as possible (I registered for Leadwoman prior to taking this job). While I will miss my friends here in the Springs, this mobilization will benefit me in a variety of ways. Ultimately it will get me a little outside my comfort zone, benefit my reserve career, my retirement paycheck, allow me to save a lot of money, and also allow me to cheaply explore an entirely new part of the country.
I'll try to update here as everything unfolds.
Major Wood Out.
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