I’m Moving

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.

Saturday Dec 3, 2011

I was driving to Meads to finish hanging my gallery. I hadn’t had a very good morning. And I asked myself, why not. What’s holding me back. I have been trying to get a job in Colorado for over 2 months now. 

So after I finished up at Meads I got in my car and started driving. I didn’t pack any bags. I didn’t print any maps. I didn’t have a place to stay. But I went anyway. I got in the car and I went.
I started to question my sanity around Salina but once I realized what I was doing and committed to it I felt so at peace. It was as if God was saying Yes. This is right.
There were a lot of things that inspired me to do this. The biggest tho was: you have to want it. I stood up for myself and made the decision I wanted this. I began chasing my dream to work and live at a ski resort.

I had made it about half way to Denver, CO before the roads started getting bad. By the time I hit Colby, KS I had been driving 30-40MPH on snow packed roads for 2 hours. It was about 12am so I pulled off and found a Walmart. I went in and bought some warm wool socks before curling up in my sleeping bag in the backseat of my Grand Prix. When I woke up at 4am the temp was 9 degrees! Around 7am I crawled back into the drivers seat and headed West.
Sunday Dec 4, 2011

I made it to Colorado and decided to surprise my friend Hannah with a visit. We grabbed coffee and caught up on life. She’s really cool!

I then proceeded to check out downtown Denver. It started snowing on my walk and looked amazing!

So I signed up for an account on Couchsurfing.org about a week ago and had forgot about it until I woke up shivering in my car. I sent out a couple requests to hosts in the Denver area.

I found a guy that let me stay at his place. He was super cool too. He had just gotten back from snowboarding. He has roasted marshmallows over lava flow in Guatemala!! I mean seriously, who does that!?! haha We shared stories for a couple hours that evening before going to bed.

Monday Dec 5, 2011

He’s a HS teacher and lives on campus. This is his backyard.

I woke up and was so grateful for having a place to stay. It was 3 degrees!! lol

So off I went. I headed to the mountains to find a job!

How neat is that? That’s pretty neat!

I made it to Copper and drove around. I found HR and talked with the pretty ladies about my application and found out the hiring manager was out of town for the week. POOP!

But hey, they have a half pipe thing!!

And a rock wall! Heck yeah!

Monday Dec 5, 2011(AFTERNOON)

Well I had done all I could here so I left and drove from ski resort to ski resort to check out the layout and talk with their HR departments.

Yup…it’s the Continental Divide!

Well I drove around and hadn’t had much luck. Some maybes but that wasn’t what I was looking for. It was getting late and even colder. I was at Winter Park and the motels in the area where going for $100. I didn’t know what to do. I sat in my car for like an hour. I zoomed out on my map and said if I find one for less than $50 I’m taking it. The second one I called they wanted $40 so I took it. I drove the hour long winding slippery drive through the mountain pass back to i70. Gosh this place was so sketchy! haha

Tuesday Dec 6, 2011

This is the place I stayed. lol

So uh…yeah. It was freaking cold! haha

I got coffee and gas from the gas station in town and got in my car to go…go where. I hadn’t been impressed with any of the other resorts. I called Copper back because some things had changed and they still had nothing. I sat there scouring the web for an hour or two. I applied for a couple more jobs and called asking for interviews with no success. Finally I remembered a Photo job at SharpShooters on Copper Mountain I had applied for two months ago. I finally got through to a real person and got myself an interview that day. I immediately headed back to Copper.

I got there and met up with the manager…let’s just say it didn’t work out. She liked me. She wanted to hire me. It just wouldn’t have been worth it.

I finally got out of there and went back to my car extremely let down at this point. I had down just about everything. I sat there for quite some time trying to decide what to do next. I was out of ideas.

About that time I get a call from Trevor, the manager at the Check In for Copper. He was calling in regard to a Night Auditor position I had applied for. Mind you this is the very first application I submitted and was then rejected for? He didn’t even see my application until that day!! What? ugh online stuff never works right!! lol

So I told him I was in town(haha in the parking lot actually) and we setup an interview. He said he almost sent me an email but decided to call me(So glad he did/God thing).

The interview went great. He wanted to check my references and said he’d get back with me the following day but that I would most likely get the job. He was shocked I was in town! lol

I knew I had the job before I went into the interview. It was a God thing. This trip wouldn’t have worked without the prayers of my close friends and family. Gods fingerprints are all over it. This was one of the most unplanned and crazy trips I’ve ever taken spur of the moment yet so smooth and successful. I mean I had a couple bumpy spots but for the most part I had an amazing time. I met some amazing people along the way and even made some new friends!

I never once regretted it. It was so great to be there with nothing but me. If I needed something I stopped at walmart. To my friends, sorry I didn’t tell any of you. This was something I needed to do for me.

So today I got a call from Trevor. I got the job. I will be taking the position of Night Auditor at Copper Mountains Guest Check-In Building on Monday Dec 7! Yeah, that’s the one that’s in a couple days! I don’t know when I’ll be back. But you all should come out to Copper and go skiing/snowboarding this winter with me!

I will be working nights. I’m going to pick up snowboarding. I’ll be staying in their Employee Housing complex called the EDGE. I am sooo excited. I headed home after the interview and got in late last night. hmmm I should prob pack, I’m going back to Colorado soon! haha Don’t worry I already know I’m crazy!

Yup. That’s Denver. In all it’s glory. Found a wonderful place to view the Sunset up on a hill on my drive home. I’m gonna find a pretty girl and we’re gonna come up here an watch the sunset together! :)

I like this picture because I feel like it’s a good photo showing the transition from Kansas to Colorado.