Howdy everyone from Missoula, Montana! I made it, and on Monday August 25th I become a student again. Classes, required reading, homework, you name it. Now that I have settled into my new chapter a little more, I felt a pull to write one final installment of my time at Alcatraz and simply share about my journey the last 3 years.

You see, I’ve known I’ve wanted to be a park ranger since I was really little, maybe even as young as 5 years old. I was never afraid of getting dirty, I loved to play in the mud, wrestle my older brother and there was something about the smell of green grass that grounded me. My most cherished childhood memories are from our time camping at Big Basin every year, and going to Graeagle, CA with my grandparents.

As you can see, I was always filled with adventure and a passion for the outdoors. When I was in my Junior year of high school, I started thinking about future careers more seriously and I remember googling “best degrees to study to become a park ranger.” And then, I got into Cal Poly. My dream school, my reach school, but they took me on as a Forestry student.

Cal Poly’s motto was Learn By Doing, and for my degree that definitely was the case. Almost every single major class I took was accompanied by a field lab, with hands on learning by assessing plots of timber up and down the central coast. During my time at Cal Poly, I landed my first parks related job, becoming an Interpretive Student Aide (ISA) for the East Bay Regional Park District.

I proudly donned my first uniform and learned what a career in the outdoors truly entailed. Lots of time on your feet, repetitive questions and interacting with people from all kinds of backgrounds. But I fell so in love, and knew I was on the right track.

After four years of hard work, I was offered my first “green and gray” position at Yellowstone National Park in the Old Faithful subdistrict.

I had about a week between graduating college and my start date, so I packed everything up and hit the road with my parents and younger sister. Little did we know we would arrive in the midst of a historic flood, but we had 4 days to visit the park and then it was full speed ahead.

Once I put on my uniform, I felt like I had won the lottery. All my hard work was paying off. I was blessed to work across many different parks, live in multiple states and have some of my best friends come visit me, as well as my amazing parents who made it a point to visit me at every park, every season.

At 22, I started my dream career. I don’t think a lot of people get to say that. And I lived my dream career for 3 wonderful years. I worked at some of the most well known sites across the U.S. and to be completely honest, for my final season, I wasn’t so sure about Alcatraz.

But in those two short months, I made an impact unlike anything I’ve seen. I grew as an interpreter, and best of all, I got to be at my home park, near my family, and that meant everything. Alcatraz is the island of opportunity, and I got to use my talents to challenge people to think more broadly about solitary confinement, visitation and mass incarceration.

But best of all, I got to lead a deaf tour with 30 individuals, taking them behind the scenes, around the island and sharing the information in their language and mine, ASL. I shared stories from the military era, the prison era and of the Native American occupation. I was able to use my knowledge and experience to give back and share my passion to the deaf community. A phenomenal experience.

I had my last day on island be a Wednesday. A little random and unusual, but very intentionally selected. You see on island, we worked 4 / 10 hour days, half of the week was Sunday – Wednesday and my side of the week was Wednesday – Saturday. Wednesdays were the only days the entire staff was together and in office.

I was able to spend time with most of our staff and thank them for their guidance and mentorship throughout my short time on island. But best of all, I got to partake in the coolest ranger tradition there is: leaving my mark on the Bay, the right way.

When I got to Alcatraz, I learned that there was an old tradition for seasonal rangers to jump into the Bay on their last day of employment in full uniform: boots and all. But for the most part, it hadn’t been done in years due to safety concerns and maybe just lack of interest. But once I heard about it, I knew I had to do it.

On Wednesday August 13th, around 6:00pm, I jumped into the water off the dock on Alcatraz Island with my colleague Eleanor. We were surrounded by a crowd of 20 onlookers: mostly colleagues, friends and some visitors, and we had the time of our lives.

The water stays at a balmy 55 degrees year round, but it was fortunately not that cold when we took our plunge.

Eleanor and I were all smiles getting on the boat, leaving small puddles behind us. We both went into the bathroom to change and waited to head back to SF. After about 15 minutes, the boat finally started moving (a longer delay than usual) but we thought nothing of it. Until we walked out of the bathrooms, clean and somewhat dry and were bombarded by our friends. Turns out, there was a miscommunication with the boat staff, and they had thought a man went overboard. So, we accidentally summoned the coastguard and SF Fire for our silly moment.

What a way to go out. Oops. But we will now go down in ranger lore history as the two gals that jumped off the island willingly and had the coastguard called on them. Afterwards, we took on the town and went to dinner as well as got some gals to ride the Ferris Wheel on Fisherman’s Wharf.

In three years working for the park service, I have accumulated a lot of crazy stories. But this one, is at the top of the list for sure. Not many people get to say they’ve worked their dream job, especially right out of college at 22. So for that, I know I am one of the lucky ones.

As hard as it is to take a break from the park service, I am looking forward to all the growth and opportunities Missoula will hold for me over the next two years. Thank you to each and every one of you who read along, your support has meant everything to me. Time will tell if my journey with the park service will continue after school, I sure hope it does, but either way, I am blessed for the time I had. Until next time, Ranger On and Go Griz! Love y’all.