Solus Sto

As time passes we age. This is the standard wisdom. Age brings perspective, and thus as time passes we age and gain perspective. This is why our lives always seem so strangely out of perspective at the time, and in hindsight things make more sense.

Anyway, as time has passed in my life goals have changed. The man I am today is not the man I was 10 years ago, and the dreams I have today are different than the dreams I had a decade ago. I sometimes envy people that have known “what they want to be” since day one. I have some friends like that, and they are happily chugging along in their chosen fields. I am not one of their ranks, however.

It has been over a decade since I set out into “the real world” as a bona fide adult. Set free from a small New Mexican town, I have taken on the world in my own unique way. I am a snowflake at the end of a barrel of a gun.

There have been ups, and there have been downs. I have grown and changed. Originally starting out, I kind of idolized my English teachers. There they were, spouting off bits of Keats and Shelley, and getting paid for it. Seemed like a good gig, and I imagined my self a professor at some small college somewhere. Tweed jacket, messy hair, small cottage near campus. You get the picture, probably because it is the stereotype we’ve all become familiar with. As I worked through my degree, I gradually fell out of love with the professor idea, and started looking elsewhere.

Long story short, I’ve gone through a variety of desk jobs looking for the the right fit. I’ve got skills, and I like to think that I made an impact in the respective offices and enterprises I’ve worked with. But now, I’ve turned something of a corner. I’m no longer interested in a job that takes place solely in a 9-5 office setting. These types of positions bore me to tears, and I consistently lose focus. Therefore, I am taking a conscious decision to seek a career that doesn’t put me indoors 8 hours a day.

This decision, coupled with my inherent attitudes and “framework” (if you will), has lead me to contemplate some new avenues. One of the first things I considered as a career was beer brewing. Over the last several years I’ve become quite the beer aficionado, and I seek out craft suds whenever possible. I think the microbrew industry is cool in that it localizes production of something I like (beer).

Another option that has come up is agriculture. I like the idea of permaculture, and the world that it envisions. I’ve long wanted a job that “mattered” in the sense of impact. Permaculture seems to fit that bill to a tee, since the whole focus is changing how we live and interact with the world around us. I am currently signed up for a Permaculture Design Course, and I look forward to seeing this philosophy first hand.

Each of these paths presents its own challenges, and offers its own rewards. The beer brewing seems more practical, and more standard. There’s a great program in Davis offered through UC that offers a certificate. It seems very doable. I can get some pre-req’s out of the way here at the College of Marin (or some analogue). The permaculture is a whole paradigm shift, by comparison. Permaculture almost seems more a way of life than just a set of skills for a job, and that’s kind of intense. I am a practical person by nature, so the less bells and whistles the more appeal to me. Permaculture offers a lot of good things, but I’m not sure how to “use” it day-to-day. Do I get a job with a landscaping firm? Do I start my own consulting biz? Work with non-profit groups? I need to explore some of those possibilities. You can really start to see how brewing is a specific skill set, while permaculture is very broad.

In a perfect world, I’d like to marry both of these disciplines. Ideally, I could obtain a brewing education and some permaculture training and then put them both to work at the right brewery. Eel River Brewing Company in Humboldt seems like it possesses both of these traits, and I like their beer, too. However, I don’t know how good an idea it is to pin hopes on one vision, much less one brewery.

So we’ll see. The Permaculture Design Course will be a good opportunity to see the idea in practice. In the mean time I am brewing beer at home, and drinking beer there too. If anyone has insight or opinion, you are invited to weigh in.