Tree planting is the best summer job.
If it’s not the people, it’s the money and if it’s not those two things, it’s the fact you aren’t stuck at home all summer working a desk job.
The old saying ‘no pain, no gain’ holds true. Between bug-bitten swollen eyes, not showering for a month and falling into a swamp at least once a day, I had never felt so alive. Even through all the pain I smiled because the lifelong friendships I made, trumped every bad moment.
Money is often the motivation to keep putting trees in the ground, because you do make a lot. But the deep-rooted friendships that come out of planting is what makes the experience so special.
But of course the beer is what everyone was really there for. Because nothing is like returning from a hard day’s work and chugging a cold one with your best friends in the middle of the forest.
Plus, not having phone service is refreshing. Planting forces people to come out of their shell, stop looking at a screen and actually talk to other people. It was an awakeningfor me. For the first time I felt no judgment and I realized it was because the outside world didn’t have input into my life.
Whether it is coming out of your shell, planting more trees than you ever could’ve imagined or saying you lived in the bush for months, the pride that comes with those over-comings, is like no other.