Step by Step

Thinking About Serving on Big Ugly?

Last week, I spent my evenings with a group of Brandies University students.  Every night we’d sit together and I would answer, among other things, their questions about what it’s like living on Big Ugly Creek.  “How long did you say the power was out for in December?”  Five days.  “But your phone was out for…..?”  Around a month.  “How often do you go to the grocery store?”  Once every two weeks usually.  “Oh my gosh, you really have to meal plan!  That is soooooooo crazy.”  I looked at this Boston-living, dorms-sleeping, cafeteria-eating group and realized how I must look.  All alone out in the mountains, no car, no cell phone service, no television, and no internet unless I’m at work.  Making fires nightly, burning toilet paper, hauling garbage and recycling up to Charleston monthly.  Feeding numerous animals.  As I looked back at them, I thought about how I must have looked when I first came to Big Ugly.  Totally unprepared; I had been totally unprepared.

To be honest, living on Big Ugly was the hardest adjustment I’d ever made and most of it was because I was so unprepared.  After four years of heavy traveling and living in different countries, I greatly underestimated how difficult the transition would be.  The smallest “town” I had ever lived in had a population of 200,000.  Many of us urban folk simply can’t prepare for living rurally because we actually don’t know what it means.  However, life on Big Ugly~ building fires in the woodstove, preparing for possible power outages, reading a lot of books for entertainment, driving 50 miles to get to a populous area ~ has been the most rewarding adjustment I’ve ever made.  In addition, the work I’ve gotten to do as a VISTA, the experience I’ve gained, and the skills I’ve learned are simply unparalleled to any other work I’ve done.  Perhaps most importantly, the people that I’ve met on Big Ugly and the friends I’ve made, and definitely the stories I’ve heard, will stay with me for years.

If you choose to serve on Big Ugly, you’ll probably experience some tough moments.  But then again, why are you serving as a VISTA in the first place?  For people on Big Ugly, living here isn’t “hard” or “isolating” or “boring,” it’s just… life.  Life is tough and rewarding.  And living it rural rather than urban isn’t better or worse.  It’s just different.  And living differently for awhile will always be rewarding.