How did we become a generation of semi-nomadic professionals?
We have real jobs, real dreams, real aspirations, real lives. 20 years ago, this meant we also owned homes and settled down and became regulars at bars and had regular garden parties and raised our kids together forever.
But somehow we've managed to "settle" into a lifestyle of happy malcontents, satisfied with interminable restlessness, an insatiable appetite for what now and what's next. Nomads used to carry all their possessions on their backs and would never buy into the modern ideal of having a "real" job. But this is the 21st Century, and instead, we've become career-oriented vagabonds.
We, the au courant breed of pioneers, we aren't trapped by what we are; instead we take what we are - our real jobs and real salaries and real benefits and real relationships and real furniture and, above all, our impressive resumes of a life well-lived though we are still rough 20-somethings - with us, rolled and folded into carry-on suitcases that fit into the overhead compartments of our lives. We jostle and haul and rearrange and live one airplane-single-serving at a time. We're just as comfortable setting up house and practicing our interior decorating skills as we are living from the trunk of a car and out of suitcases, but we always have our laptops on and our internet running in case we get an important email from work. You could say that we search for "meaning," but we've also never bought into cheesy cliches. We're just.... searching.
Maybe we don't even know why.
The reason for the introspection is a simple one: our good friends Corey and Elizabeth are moving to Michigan, a career move, as have been all their moves. They illustrate our generation: we move constantly to keep the best job, instead of falling victim to institutional loyalty and "climbing the ladder," because climbing doesn't really fit into our particular skill set. We saw them off with a parade of 12 people and 12 dogs through the wilderness, a perfect Lander farewell. They will be greatly missed. Good luck guys!
Yesterday, Brewer the Brewmaster Dog and I had the esteemed pleasure of putting the very first footprints in the new snow at Popo Agie Falls.
It doesn't happen often, as the trail is extremely popular, but I guess midday on a Wednesday in the off-season is the time to enjoy the Gateway to the Winds. 
We had the trail and the falls all to ourselves, nothing but the din of the river and the hum of the wind through lodgepole pine and naked aspen to fill our ears.
