I Never Wanted to Work Behind a Desk…

…yet that’s exactly what I ended up doing with my life. 

When I graduated from high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do for a career, but I was adamant about one thing: I did not want to spend my life sitting behind a desk, staring at a computer screen 40+ hours per week. Ironic. 

It’s not that I wasn’t good at academics. The standard line of questioning, “Well, what are you good at in school? OK, well, go to college and do that,” didn’t work for me, because I was good at everything. Some things came easier than others, but regardless, I got straight As at everything I tried to do. (Except for some gym classes, I suppose. I could never quite figure out what was required for an A. Probably being on the high school football team after hours.)

It’s not that I wasn’t adept at technology. In fact, I spent a lot of time on computers and behind screens growing up. In my senior year, when a new internet filter was installed that prevented me from working on my blog and my websites from the school library, I was the only kid in school (to the best of my knowledge) who decided that enough was enough. I figured out how to set up a proxy server on my home computer and use that proxy to bypass the filter—a technique used by many Chinese at that time to get around the Great Wall censoring their internet.

Through all of this striving to win at academics, and working on my own personal technology projects, somewhere along the way, I made a decision that staring at a screen all day wasn’t truly living.

Living in tandem with my nerdy self was an alter-ego of sorts. This alter-ego lived for exploring the woods and hills of central Wisconsin. In winter, that pursuit was downhill skiing on our podunk hill, measuring 365 feet tall. I would ski the slopes, sure, but I would also clip out of my skis, sling them over my shoulders, and set off into the woods—hiking up one ridge and then another and then another, to see what was on the other side—and what incredible ski lines could be found there!

Mountain boarding was my other main escape during early high school, which helped me look at each individual hill, road, and pathway in a different light—what would make for a fun, entertaining ride, that isn’t too shallow but isn’t too steep?

Finally, mountain biking entered the picture around the age of 16, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The clash of what seem to be diametrically-opposed outlooks on life resulted in a clear winner: "the woods and the mountains are where real life is lived," said my soul. Sitting in a cubicle behind a desk—that is not truly living.

Yet one thing led to another. I thought I’d become a carpenter—never really pursued that fully. I thought I would become a mountain guide—decided to be realistic, that would never happen. (Plus, I realized I wasn’t quite enough of a people person to want to cater to a client’s every whim, all day, every day.) As my most formative years unfolded, I found myself eventually in an accredited college, pursuing a normal degree path.

But what eventually landed me behind a desk wasn’t just being realistic about the economy in America today. More than that, it was a desire for something else. I decided to stop being quite so realistic, and started pursuing a passion that has tortured my soul for as long as I can remember: writing. 

The quickest and most efficient way to write is to use a computer. I don’t write well enough long-hand for my pen to keep up with my mind in a flow state. And I type accurately and quickly. Side note: by far the most valuable choice I ever made in high school was to go beyond the basic keyboarding class requirement and take Keyboarding 1, 2, and 3 as electives. 

As my passions congealed into one—mountain bike journalism, for lack of a better term—the path forward seemed to unfold before me, and it led to a desk.

Now, I’m not entirely complaining about how I moved from my passion for the outdoors to a career behind a desk. If I’m being “realistic” about it all, millions of Americans work behind computers all day, every day. The primary exports of our country are information and culture. Even employees in concrete industries that revolve around physical products have to put in extensive amounts of computer time, especially for those that rise through the ranks and find themselves successful: in administration.

My father made an even more startling progression than I. His love of the outdoors led him to get a degree in Forestry, and he began his career as a true forester—roaming through the woods marking trees, and managing public lands for wildlife, recreation, and sustainable resource extraction. But as a diligent, hardworking individual, he moved his way up through the ranks, until he occupied the highest un-elected position in the department. 

His rise parked him squarely behind a desk. During my childhood, he spent his days “pushing a pencil,” as he liked to say. But his analog work transitioned to digital, and he saw the personal computer come to dominate all forms of administrative and information work across the nation. Eventually, his dream job of walking through the forest devolved to staring at a screen, in an office without a window, for 50-odd hours per week.

The Point

Here’s the point:

For millions of us, working behind a desk, at a computer, is a reality of our existence. While I’m optimistic that if we want it badly enough we could escape it, for most of us, I think we want something else more than NOT working at a desk. Thus, we continue in our existence—day after day after day.

The Outside 365 challenge was born in my soul in response to my everyday reality of staring at a computer screen. Realism and careers aside, I’m still a firm believer that we get to choose what life we lead, and that the power to change our existence lies solely with us. We can refuse to be ruled and dominated by our screens, by our careers, and take back what’s important in our lives. In my life, I needed to reclaim the outdoors—my daily interaction with nature, with actual real life. 

For me, it wasn't enough to be a weekend warrior. I needed to fight this battle every single day. I needed to introduce more nature and more exercise into my life on a routine basis. That’s how my psyche works. 

That’s what led me to the Outside 365 challenge, and man, what a rewarding path it has been!

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