Personal Narrative: My Senior Project Experience

For my Senior Project Experience I job shadowed a Park Ranger at Wallowa Lake Park. Having always have loved the outdoors and being interested as pursuing Recreation Management as a career it seemed like a fine choice for my experience. My mentor and I spent the weekend maintaining the park and working on projects to help make it better. Some of these tasks were harder than others, making for some challenging moments. Spending that weekend in a almost Fargo-esque environment with some strange characters and beautiful scenery was an amazing experience.

This story starts after having spent 8 hours in a car and having the realization I was getting sick the day before. I woke up at 7 o’clock to get ready and eat before I met my mentor. I was nervous but excited for the day ahead. I finished my oatmeal and began to walk in the snow to where I thought I saw the ranger station the night before, but then again it was dark out. After I got there I had to wait, because in my excitement had arrived ten minutes early. When Dick Mcdonald (my mentor) got there I was quite surprised. Here I was expecting a young, brown haired man who was stern and serious. What he actually looked like was a rather older fellow with almost no hair and what is left is grey. He was a bit silly looking and

I loved the time I spent there as a volunteer experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. As a profession though I feel as if this is not what is for me. I think I just loved the outdoors so much that I wanted to work in it but I just much rather would be on the recreation side of it. I learned much more about the work there and about myself than I thought I would. I feel that I have built a sense of confidence when becoming social with someone I don 't know that I didn 't have before. Overall this experience taught me and allowed me an opportunity to leave my comfort zone and see what comes from it, and for that, I thank