Bison, elk and bears, oh my
By Jane Muhlstein
A typical back-to-school column might consist of a recap of summer news or a preview of fall fashion trends. I hear Martha Stewart's going to jail, and apparently ponchos and blazers are both back in style, but that's about all I have to offer.
I'm just trying to get used to walking to school without having to dodge buffalo and coyotes. I'm going to be really lost when the weekend arrives and there aren't any mountains for me to climb.
I spent the last three months working in Yellowstone National Park. High in the Absaroka Mountains, without cell phone service or internet access, I was about as far away from the high-paced world of Silicon Valley as I could get. As a person who usually relies heavily on all the modern conveniences the civilized world allows, I know how insane my decision sounds.
In previous years, I've done the things you're supposed to do during college summers. I've gone home to boost my resume while trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with my life after Santa Clara.
I donned pencil skirts and sweater sets, interning for a TV station and a United States Senator. I spent all last summer in cat hair-covered scrubs, working as a veterinary assistant. They were valuable experiences. But I ended up getting a lot more out of the summer I spent in hiking boots.
Between school, work and visits with parents, it's hard to escape the signs we're drawing eerily closer to the Real World. Pathological overachiever that I am, it was a novel idea to spend my last summer before applying to law school doing anything not carefully designed to impress an admissions committee. But if we don't have our crazy adventures now, when will we?
I'm sure there were the usual breaking stories all summer long, but I don't feel like I missed much, besides the Olympics and political conventions, of course, which made this journalist a bit more appreciative of newspapers. And I still worked in a fight with my mother about my future via cell phone, in a Wyoming sushi restaurant.
Soon enough, life will be nothing but the Real World. There are only a few precious years left of complete freedom before many of us are committed to a full-time job, a spouse, kids and a mortgage.
While you have the chance, spend a few months doing something you never thought you'd do. I promise, when I walked back through my apartment door, those law school applications were waiting right where I left them.
*Ã Ã Contact Jane Muhlstein at (408) 554-4546 or jmuhlstein@scu.edu.