BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: EXPOSING MY ROOTS
I have been going through my archives lately, sifting through at least 1000 pictures documenting the last 6 years of my trials and tribulations with various methods of gardening. It has taken me quite a while to go through so many much to figure out how I want to post, as there were not only a lot of pics, but a lot of life events, as well. In fact, there is so much to share that there will be multiple posts for each year. I have also decided to write about untold short stories of my childhood in a series of posts, concurrently, if possible. Might as well document everything before I forget all the details, right?
In this post I am starting off with the catalyst, the life "succession", of what led me to the beautiful life philosophy that is Permaculture. I will try to keep my written stories generally between 1000-1500 words and probably light on the pictures because the overwhelming majority of pictures of my childhood have been destroyed from flooding. As this is the first post kicking everything off and starting from a later period in time, this post will be lengthier then the rest.
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: EXPOSING MY ROOTS
IN THE BEGINNING...A SERIOUS 7TH GRADER:
Children often have great ideas of what they want to be when they grow up. A doctor, a nurse, a firefighter, a pilot, etc. The first serious idea for a future career I settled on was an Astronaut. With the help of my 7th grade Science teacher and my parents, I fundraised at local charity groups around town, one of them being the Lion's Club, to find sponsors to go to Space Camp.
I dressed up in a business suite, came prepared with handouts, and spoke in front of their board members in a nervous sweat. My parents said if I could raise half the money they would pay for the second half to go to Space Camp in Tallahassee. It was a great experience, but one which left the idea of becoming an Astronaut right there in Florida!! Motion Sickness has always been a problem for me. After riding on the 360 degree simulator, I was over it!
The next idea was to become a mathematician. Although dyslexic, math was my strongest subject. I was already doing college credit pre-Trig/Calculus in 8th grade. However, that idea was scrapped because the types of places that hired mathematicians was not too appealing. I had incorrectly assumed those jobs were exclusively in the government and military. As much as math was fascinating to me, working in that field seemed like it might be really boring. Plus, I had no intention of being a federal employee.
Then there was the elective class I took in 8th grade on interior design. Architecture became my new obsession after that class. Finally, Architecture was going to be my future, no doubt about it! From then on, the goal for the next 5 years through high school was to take every single class, every single subject matter, even remotely related to something that pertained or intersected with architecture, as well as to work as many jobs/hours on top of school in order to get into college to become an Architect. I took multiple hand Drafting classes.
I was a student in an apprenticeship program with the Associated Builders & Contractors program, specializing as a first year apprentice as a Commercial Electrician. To complete that I worked a paid internship with South Kansas City Electric for 4 months (8-12 hour days plus the 2 hour round trip commute, 5-7 days a week as for about a month overtime was mandatory due to workload) during the summer and first semester of my junior year.
Because I was in that program, I was on work release to allow me to miss school days. In those classes I also was able to learn about general construction, basic wood working, with an overview of tools. I took every college level class possible, studying extra hard to get near perfect grades. The only class I did poorly in was Advanced college credit European History. Have never been good with names or dates.
During my freshman year is when I first learned of and became fascinated with Faeries, after reading some books from a science fiction and fantasy mail order book club subscription I was part of. I was only even in this subscription because I was trying to boost my reading comprehension. Being dyslexic makes reading novels difficult, after all. It is easy to lose focus missing chunks of the story.
Anyway, I became so fascinated with those ornery mythological creatures! So much so that in one of the topics I chose to write about for an English Literature and Composition class I wrote the assigned 7 page research paper on the history and folklore Faeries around the world, with a specific focus in Ireland. That was when I learned of the concept of Faerie mound houses. Soon I began telling anyone who would listen, even those who were not interested, I was going to live in a hole in the ground. A mound house, just like the mythological Faeries.
That, in combination with the obsession of Architecture, suddenly set in stone the type of Architecture I wanted to pursue.
Academically I lucked out. Of my senior year in high school, the only classes I took were Lifetime Sports, where I got to go bowling or putt at the golf range for 2 hours twice a weed, and Poetry the other 3 days a week. We were on a block schedule, so that meant I was only in school for 2 hours a day for 3 months my senior year, which was how long the first semester lasted, well before winter break. I would have graduated the previous year but the school wouldn't let me earn that half a credit in summer school I was short to move ahead. Of course, I was also working part time jobs in the Food Industry when i wasn't in school. At the time, all of this hyperfocusing felt worth the end goal.
I had already completed some college math and english classes starting as early as 8th grade, so when I was done with those senior elective classes I jumped straight into the local community college with 5 college credits and a 3.94 GPA for Spring Enrollment. My first semester consisted of Architectural Design (2 credits), AutoCad (3 credits), and Analytical Geometry/Calculus 1 (5 credits) and Trigonometry based Physics (5 credits) for a total of 15 credit hours. I was working a full time 40 hour a week job as a tax receptionist, as well.
The intention was to knock out the core classes prior to transferring in the Fall to the college of my dreams: Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. It was a private art college which offered a masters in Architectural Design. What I felt was the perfect environment for my creative and analytical juices to blend into a nice cocktail of success. I was so excited, so driven, and so full of energy. I worked tremendously hard the previous 5 years.
When I learned they'd accepted me with a half ride scholarship for each of the 5 years it would take to complete that degree, I felt like my hard work, my sacrifices, had paid off. I was an unstoppable 18 year old. All I had to do was continue to work hard from January to August to knock those core classes out of the way, save up some moving money, then wait to get the approval letter for the loans my parents applied for to cover the remaining tuition.
The summary is this; after working, then studying, and working on top of working, then studying on top of studying, I eventually became hyper focused to the point of becoming too serious about my naive notions of life. Hard as it might be to imagine, I didn't have much of a social life. The friends I did have drifted apart because I was too busy, too serious, to be present in those relationships.
REALITY CHECK: A VALUABLE LESSON IN LIFE
Unfortunately, the loans were denied. The cost of the private school was much too out of reach, even with a half ride scholarship and average credit. Adding to that, I had applied at other colleges within my state only because I was told to. I had no intention of staying in state. I was going to be on the first bus, plane, pair of walking boots out of there! I had LIFE to live. Surely I needed to be in a metropolis to learn what life was all about!
Yet, there in that letter addressed to my hardworking parents, were words that crushed my spirit. It did not matter to me that other colleges had accepted me. Nothing mattered anymore. It felt like life flipped me off. Deep depression set in. With the denial of loans for college tuition to the school I was stubbornly insistent on going to, I shut down mentally. POOF. There went my dreams. I was so crushed by that denial I threw out rationale. I didn't care to work hard anymore for a dream I had sacrificed so much time and effort focusing on since the 8th grade.
Although credit-wise I had graduated from high school, the official ceremony wasn't until May.I was so depressed that I tried very hard to refuse going. It took multiple people to talk me into being there for the ceremony. I didn't care. That first legit semester in college, with those mentally intense classes, combined with the full time work schedule, only added oil to the flames. I finished that first and only full time college semester with a 1.29 GPA, on academic probation for failing the Physics class, and barely passing either the Analytical Calculus/Trigonometry and Architectural Design class. I believe to this day that the math professor passed me. There is no way I passed that final.
I turned to the underground world of electronic music where the community welcomed me with open arms and the music comforted me. The music raised my low energy with the fast paced melodic rhythms. As they say, I threw caution to the wind. I think that means made stupid decisions. ue to finances and naive choices not to go to the colleges who had offered me half ride scholarships which were instate and affordable, my Architectural Design associates degree was never completed.
Unfortunately, life happened. Adulting commenced. An Architectural Design Career never came to fruition. Finances were never good enough to be able to go to college full time. Within just a year of graduating I became too old to qualify for the same scholarships I'd declined just months earlier. On top of that, working in the food industry was an incredibly difficult and chaotic work schedule to even fit classes into. Periodically I would try but would not last very long.
A NEW DOOR OPENED
Eventually that nightlife lifestyle began to wear me down. It was too much energy. It became stressful. It was full of a lot of people around me drinking (a lot all the time) and doing drugs (a lot most of the time) which wasn't appealing to me. It wasn't that I cared if other people lived that lifestyle, but after a while I didn't want to be around it. I had been taking djing very seriously at that point, also.
Too seriously, in fact. That is where much of the stress came. It was one day that I realized I needed to change something. I wanted a stable career with benefits, not in the public eye as dj anymore, with normal regular hours and a future. I still believed Architecture was out of reach, although I figured if I could work in a REAL career, there would be a better likelihood of getting that degree than continuing to work 2-3 simultaneous jobs in the Food Industry, in addition to djing.
Suddenly an unexpected opportunity came up for me to move to Hollywood for a Recording Engineering Certificate. Luckily, I landed a job shortly after completing that certificate. This job was everything I moved out there to be doing. It was 40 hours a week, good pay, good benefits, utilizing the skills I learned as a dj. It was a great job. I ended up buying a house at the age of 27 which was a mile away from a Community College that offered an associates in Architecture.
BACK TO SCHOOL I WENT
With the previous classes being sporadic throughout the years, my math skills had deteriorated so much so that I was all the way back to pre-algebra. English Composition needed repeated. It's all a little funny. lol Thankfully, the drafting and AutoCad classes were available for me to take without repeating classes, so I jumped right into those. I found myself spending a lot of time after projects were completed playing around with designing "Hobbit Houses" and learning about landscape design. In my spare time I had been reading, once again, about earth covered houses. The difference was now they were called Earthship or Earthbag houses and real people lived in them. I was doubly reenergized because that was the time I was Mastering/Editing/Dubbing foreign language at work for The Lord of the Rings movies. Life felt like it was on the right path again!
Henceforth, gardening and permaculture slowly started becoming my focus. The house I owned had a small but adequate sized back yard that, truth be told, was too hard for me to maintain with the hours I was commuting and working. I was trying to improve my diet. It was the perfect time to start a garden. However...Work... My daily commute was 2.5-3 hours roundtrip from San Bernardino to a couple of blocks away from LAX Airport in Los Angeles, California. I was working about 10.5 hours a day, 4 days a week.
Between sleeping, driving, working, and studying, there was no time for a garden! Cue the prompt for learning about simple irrigation to keep a garden watered daily in 90-105 degree F California summer temperatures while I was away from home day to day. There was debris around my property from the previous owners, plus some of my own junk, such as tires.
Cue the prompt for learning about tire gardening. When I first moved in I had trees cut down into logs from the back yard, which were directly under power lines. Cue the prompt for learning about Hugelkultur. In general, cue the beginning of my journey learning about and implementing gardening, sustainability, homesteading and eventually permaculture practices, which ironically, take me full circle back to my childhood roots while incorporating skills I learned on the quest for an Architectural Design degree, because of choosing a career path in Recording Engineering, which was a fork that occurred due to djing. It's funny how life cycles back around, isn't it?
AND THERE WAS THE BIRTH OF MY QUEST FOR PERMACULTURE. IN 2011 I BEGAN MY FIRST GARDENING TRIALS. STAY TUNED!
(What I am PLANNING to do is chronicle memories and experiences from childhood through adulthood that will tie all of the elements in life which have molded this convoluted variety in interests into the ultimately cohesive path towards permaculture and homesteading. Concurrently will be a series of Gardening/Sustainability/Homesteading/Permaculture specific posts with tons of pictures documenting my progression from 2011 to 2017. Thank you for sticking around till the end. I hope you will enjoy these short stories.)
TO BE CONTINUED...
That's all for now. Until the next post... If you found this post enjoyable, please consider upvoting, resteeming, following, and commenting! Thank you kindly for reading.
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This was an excellent read. Your blog is quickly becoming one of my very favorites! I can't wait to hear more of your story, its fascinating and inspiring.
Thanks @dflo! It means a lot for you to say that. Hope to keep the next posts as interesting!
This story is breathtaking! What a whirlwind! I can relate a lot to the studiousness and work early on in life and the pain of long hours and long commutes. I never considered myself a great student but I was encouraged into college courses in high school which lead me to working in much of my spare time from high school throughout college. I often wondered if all that hard work was really worth it when I feel like I missed out on some of my youth but looking back now I learn so much from my experiences.
I really think its interesting and unique how dynamic your path has been. I think it must make you stronger and more ready for changes later in your life. My path was not as varied earlier in my life and I clung to the direction I had chosen to go, and didn't question whether it was good for me or if other options might be better. It made it harder later in life to confront larger changes. I think the pain and challenges you went through must give you great strength and adaptability for the rest of your life!
I am excited to see where this story leads and where your childhood dream of faeries and hobbit homes leads you!
I don't think change, especially unwanted change, is ever easy. My view is the purpose of life is to experience and learn from experience. Sometimes the most educational moments are the most difficult life experiences. Hindsight is 20/20. Or in the glass half full analogy... hindsight is scoring 20 out of 20 on that life lesson. I have a habit of repeating those tests lol.
Strength feels very subjective. There are always moments of strength and weakness. The challenge is keeping that pendulum from having the least dramatic swings.
Anyway, thanks for the kind thoughtful response.
Sharing your life experiences is very generous, for all to learn from your experiences, which otherwise would be private. You are doing a great job learning from your past... sharing all of these experiences is proof that you are doing the hard work of improving yourself, listening to yourself and being honest with yourself. That is something to be proud of! Thanks again for sharing so that I can also learn from you :)
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Thanks for sharing some of the ups and downs in your education, interests, and career. I can identify with much of your path. I was so angry in high school when I did not get a scholarship I totally deserved. It took me many more failures to discover that I would be type cast and discriminated for everything I had to apply for. Really thought I had the drive and talent (I did) to live the capitalist's dream, and instead got pulled into a socialist nighmare. Dumb luck has been the only thing that has elevated me to use a sliver of the potential I developed to achieve great things.
Keep up the good work.
I appreciate the response sharing how life went for you. Life is a curious thing. Painful at times. It all comes back around, somehow. I personally don't believe in dumb luck. I believe in timing. Opportunities come and go. Sometimes what we want to happen isn't meant to, at that time. But, this is my personal belief. It's subject to change and it's certainly not what I think everyone else should believe. I don't know your circumstances, but maybe, maybe you are selling yourself a little short. Taking good opportunities is a good skill, too. I guess I'm rambling. Anyway, thank you for the comment!
That's okay. There is no way to prove how fate, chance, or divine timing rules our lives, or if it is the mistake of our choices. All I know is I feel like I wasted years searching for opportunities I felt I earned, but would never find. Perhaps I still have a lot of jealousy issues when I see people who complain that their positions of power, wealth, health, and beauty are not enough. I have always values the underdogs who persist to attain reachable goals. That is the bare minimum I think every hard working honest person deserves.
I can relate to where you are coming from. I'm sorry that things did not have the results you were working hard for. I understand how hard that is to take.
That was really well written, and quite fascinating!
Dubbing in foreign languages for the Lord of the Rings movies, that must have be pretty trippy!
It was a really cool job. It was interesting because having to listen to one thing in one ear, another thing in the other, while ignoring the languages. It was very similar to beat matching records, though, so it was something I was familiar with.
dangit i tried proofreading this lol. i want to edit it. will wait. i see a Freudian slip im not sure I want to edit out when I do. lol.
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