I went to Iraq as an infantryman(Non gender based Infantry Human as its called these days) in 2006. I came home in 2008. That being said I was privileged by my nation to take part in what would become know as "The Surge". It. friggin'. Sucked. I hung out and partied with our local and beloved insurgents for about 18 months through 2007 when the U.S. Army had the highest KIA/WIA of all years of the war. Afterwards I was able to take a huge shit on the bare chest that is stop-loss due to an injury that flagged me for deployment and snag a discharge. I made my way home and tried to explain to everyone who would listen for about a month what I had been through and came to realize that 1)Nobody gave a shit 2)People who didn't understand but tried to act like they did just friggin' suck.
Being as that I cannot remember a time in my life I couldn't weld(Thanks Dad!) I got a job as a millwright post Army. My pre-military life mostly consisted of working on cars and building stuff from steel. It paid well but I ended up working a corporate job at around 20 different plants up and down the east coast. By working about 90 hours a week, missing my daughters birthday 4 years in a row, and living in hotels while my family pretty much fended for themselves I grew to hate my job. I was making about $110,000 a year as a 25 year old. One of the few times I was home A tree crew showed up across the street and I saw this guy do something amazing.
He threw on a saddle and some spurs and just frigged up this tree. (I know now that he actually frigged the tree up when he spurred up it and did a bunch of peel cuts, he was pruning it and absolutely frigged up that tree, but at the time I thought it was awesome.) So out of nowhere I left my job and bought a bunch of saws and a saddle.
I applied the same concept of perpetual eduction to my newfound career as I did to my millwright job and the military and progressed rapidly. I'm still absolutely friggin' shit at what I do but can sling it without friggin' much up these days. After trying to explain the military stuff and hitting a wall I don't even try with tree work.
Tree work is very similar to combat. You can do everything right and still get killed. People who have not been a climber absolutely cannot understand what it is to go up there. They can't, and thats OK. It is OK because frig you that's why. Other climbers will understand what it is, but no matter what you do to put the right words in the right order to explain what it is to somebody who hasn't been up there is a waste of time.
Your friends, your wife, your kids, literally anyone you try and explain what you do to, cannot understand. They absolutely can't. Don't get mad, don't get bent out of shape. You wanting a non tree climber to understand what you do is the same as me wanting a non-veteran to understand combat. Both are like showing a crazy porn to a virgin to explain sex. If you take a pick on a crane and intend to make it butt heavy but it ends up brush heavy, it tips, breaks in half, and you almost die, talk about it to other climbers and leave it at work. If you go home and try to explain it to your wife she will nod her head and ask if you got dog food on the way home.Not because she doesn't love you, but because she has no idea what your talking about.
Being as that I cannot remember a time in my life I couldn't weld(Thanks Dad!) I got a job as a millwright post Army. My pre-military life mostly consisted of working on cars and building stuff from steel. It paid well but I ended up working a corporate job at around 20 different plants up and down the east coast. By working about 90 hours a week, missing my daughters birthday 4 years in a row, and living in hotels while my family pretty much fended for themselves I grew to hate my job. I was making about $110,000 a year as a 25 year old. One of the few times I was home A tree crew showed up across the street and I saw this guy do something amazing.
He threw on a saddle and some spurs and just frigged up this tree. (I know now that he actually frigged the tree up when he spurred up it and did a bunch of peel cuts, he was pruning it and absolutely frigged up that tree, but at the time I thought it was awesome.) So out of nowhere I left my job and bought a bunch of saws and a saddle.
I applied the same concept of perpetual eduction to my newfound career as I did to my millwright job and the military and progressed rapidly. I'm still absolutely friggin' shit at what I do but can sling it without friggin' much up these days. After trying to explain the military stuff and hitting a wall I don't even try with tree work.
Tree work is very similar to combat. You can do everything right and still get killed. People who have not been a climber absolutely cannot understand what it is to go up there. They can't, and thats OK. It is OK because frig you that's why. Other climbers will understand what it is, but no matter what you do to put the right words in the right order to explain what it is to somebody who hasn't been up there is a waste of time.
Your friends, your wife, your kids, literally anyone you try and explain what you do to, cannot understand. They absolutely can't. Don't get mad, don't get bent out of shape. You wanting a non tree climber to understand what you do is the same as me wanting a non-veteran to understand combat. Both are like showing a crazy porn to a virgin to explain sex. If you take a pick on a crane and intend to make it butt heavy but it ends up brush heavy, it tips, breaks in half, and you almost die, talk about it to other climbers and leave it at work. If you go home and try to explain it to your wife she will nod her head and ask if you got dog food on the way home.Not because she doesn't love you, but because she has no idea what your talking about.
