Origins of Ryan's History obsession, Part 2

Last month I revealed my early interest in history. This month the two themes I wish to explore are Passion and Professionalism. Passion comes from passio- meaning 'to suffer' in Latin, and I am using it to describe the trials and tribulations through determined effort and enthusiasm on my journey until now, 'my journey' meaning how I transitioned from being an amateur enthusiast into a professional.

Remember 1998? I had been a reenactor

for a year that year as this old-school 

photograph illustrates. 

The first bit I want to share is when I started doing Civil War Living History. I talk about it a lot on this blog but it is important to understand why it is important to me. I had seen reenactors and living historians before on one of our trips. I saw my first Civil War Living History demonstration in Yorktown, VA, where a Confederate battalion demonstrated firing techniques. But I had not yet seen a battle reenactment and it would be years later before I would see one. It was when my father went to a Boy Scout leader meeting with other troop leaders and one of them mentioned going with his boys to a Civil War reenactment at Irvine Regional Park, in Irvine, CA, that day, and it would be there all weekend. My father and I went over there to see what we could see, and what we saw impressed us. At the time it was something fun to do that was appealing to me. As I got more and more into the hobby, the more I began to learn about it in fine detail. The truth was that it was given deeper interest by research and brought to life with imagination. I had previously experienced the Civil War in books and maps with red and blue arrows and sepia-toned photographs of frumpy men with beards. At a reenactment or Living History, history could be interacted with on a personal level. A curious public could ask a Living Historian the questions about why they were the way they were and receive a personal answer. Such learning fosters more learning while providing "customer service". Since joining, my interest in the shooting and running around part of the 'war' has waned, but new things take their place. Some of these new things included taking leadership of a unit and researching an officer's roles and responsibilities, civilian life, looking into 19th century past-times like Faro, and other similarly related topics. I've also branched out to other time periods like early 19th century mountain man as well as World War Two French Foreign Legion and Australian impressions. One of the elements that demonstrates passion is that this is all funded by myself. I own all my own gear; nobody bankrolls me and my impressions. I cannot calculate how much time and money I have invested in my gear. These experiences and interests remind me of a few things: we can learn to understand some of the past by walking in its shoes and that history is made up of people and not impersonal forces of nature.

My WWII Aussie Impression for the 50th
anniversary of the closing of the Kokoda
trail. The 39th Bn AIB was nearly nearly
destitute, threadbare, and starving but
saved New Guinea from the Japanese. 

Since I had a pretty good idea that I excelled at history, I decided to pursue it as a major course of study and become a teacher. I thought that if I could get kids excited in history that they would be more excited about school in general and be better, more wholesome people. Plus, I'd get summer vacations! So when I went to California State University Long Beach, I knew what I was going to major in. I attended a number of exceptional classes that challenged me academically and intellectually and all together were a fantastic experience. Once I neared the end of my undergrad, I got into the introduction to teaching classes. As I started doing my teacher training, I learned about classroom management, how to come up with lesson plans, and the education system. However, I realized that the teaching profession was not what I expected or what I wanted. Also, for years California had been clamoring for new teachers to replace the retirement aged teachers supposedly phasing out of employment and claimed there was a great need. Either the rush to retire was less than expected or the educational system had not anticipated such a response to the call and suddenly there were no teaching jobs, no funding, and a surplus of well qualified and trained teachers without jobs being dumped into the job market every May with graduation. So rather than go into teaching, I wrapped up my undergrad without the teaching credentials.  Without much direction after graduation, I went back to work at summer camp as I had done every summer of college. I had watched their outdoor education program change over a few years and I asked to join when summer was over. Steve, the program director, had been moving the program to be from a 'science camp' experience to a 'using history to teach science camp' and I liked the idea enough that I worked in this program for four seasons. The outdoor education teachers were called Trail Leaders and we led groups of 6th graders in week long camps. 

2006, it was a start.

We dressed as 'mountain men' to teach outdoor science like fire building and mammal biology in activities. We dressed as lumberjacks to teach tree ecology and geology, with activities like 'panning for gold'. Since I had experience in Living History culture, I was able to help made suggestions for costuming and curriculum corrections that helped with future programming. The informal structure of the classes really appealed to me because it was education that the student could engage in while doing an activity outside of the classroom and the strict eye of 'formal education'. I and my Trail Leader friends put in long hours for months on end to make the greatest experiences for the students, parents, and teachers. My experience with Outdoor Adventures further shaped the kind of educator I wanted to be and helped prompt me to go back to school to get my Masters degree from California State University Fullerton.

M.A. History with an emphasis in

public history, 2011.

It was there at California University Fullerton where I was introduced to public history as a discipline and historical interpretation as a vocation. At first the idea did not register with me; the term was unfamiliar to me and it was not explained very well at the time. As I spent more time in the History office (as a student office assistant) I got to know the professors better and understand a little bit more about what they did. I explained my background in Living History and Outdoor Adventure and someone asked,"Why don't you go talk to Dr. Rast about public history?" I did so and was soon enrolled in his Intro. to Public History seminar class. As we explored topics from Culture Resource Management, Archives, Historical Interpretation, Museum Curating, and all things in between, I realized that this was what I really wanted to do as an educator and a History enthusiast. I switched my emphasis as a Master to public history shortly afterward, but I needed to do an internship as part of my course of study for my Master's degree. I was blessed enough to be selected to go to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. The link describes what I did there and my thoughts about it. In preparation for my work at Harpers Ferry, the Rangers directed me to the Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands website to take some online courses on the National Parks, the foundations of interpretation, and the federal government. Since then, I have taken additional interpretive courses to further my education and to make myself a better interpreter.

By the end of the internship, I knew that historical interpretation was for me and I have been working to getting a permanent position ever since. It has not been easy because while seasonal and part time positions are relatively available, the permanent jobs are few and the competition fierce. My experience at Harpers Ferry showed me what a great organization the National Park System is, and it has since been my goal to get in. I was warned beforehand that it was not easy to get into the Park system, but I failed to understand how hard it would be. Unfortunately for me, I made a number of mistakes. The first was probably leaving Harpers Ferry, but there has been no indication that I could stay. I had to finish my degree, after all. The next hindrance was the reorganization of the Pathways program. While Pathways makes getting a federal job easier if you are a college student, it was late in getting jobs ready for recent graduates. Even with an extended grace period from graduation, the amount of Park jobs available to recent graduates was practically non-existent. Consequently, that time ran out before I ever saw a Pathways opening for a Park Service position that I was qualified for. My only ways in were to be a veteran (which meant boot camp, uncertain futures, possible deployment, and years of service I simply don't have) or national service with the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps VISTA program.

Stationed interpretation at the Guard House

While I worked as a director of my own outdoor education program in 2012, I simultaneously applied to VISTA and the SCA. The SCA (Student Conservation Association) is attractive on a resume in pursuit to a National Park job since many of the positions partner with the National Parks. It is primarily a conservation program, the positions extended to cultural and historical conservation as well. While I am more history focused, a interpreter with a will to interpret the environment would also benefit from a term of service with the SCA as well.While Fort Scott National Historic Site selected me and I had a great time there as well. I was charged with putting together a 30 minute activity lesson on the Quartermaster Depot during the Civil War which ran about twice a week for a month. I created my own tour of the site at their behest. Since it is the only NPS site that includes the 'Bleeding Kansas' time period, I thought it was an excellent topic for my tour and I focused on the events in Fort Scott in 1858 when the town was directly involved in the conflict. This time on the old frontier helped hone my experience and training into something that was much more professional. The problem of it all was that the 3 month appointment would separate me from my wife since she had an excellent job and it would be a tough time for her to find a new job for just 3 months. So with a heavy heart I headed to Kansas without her in pursuit of my career.

As a VISTA, I managed the

Northeast Iowa Food Bank Garden

and recruited and trained volunteers

and quadrupled the production from

900 lbs. in 2014 to 3,896 lbs in 2015

After Fort Scott, my career started to take new turns. The summer after Fort Scott, I worked at Living History Farms in Iowa and really took my Living History game to another level. You can read about some of my experiences here on this blog. It was also during this time that I started this blog, which was originally supposed to be about my experiences at Living History farm and take each week as a lesson, but as I examined the vast internet further, I noticed a lack of historical interpretive websites that were really meaningful or explored the topic further, so I decided to gear this blog into that gap in a way that demonstrates my web-savvy, some of my technical skills, and creates more of an 'online presence' for me. As before, my time at Living History Farms meant another period of separation with my wife, this time it was for 8 long months. While in Iowa, I finally got into VISTA in August of 2014 at a Food Bank.  VISTA is a segment of the AmeriCorps that fights poverty in America by increasing program capacity rather than directly serving. I use this example to explain: If my task is to teach middle school students how to improve their reading abilities after school with them, that is direct service. If I recruit, train, place, and manage volunteers in a program that teaches middle

school students to improve their reading ability, that is increasing the capacity. What I did was recruit, train, and manage volunteers in a garden program for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. I talk about that experience a little bit here. Rather with be separated with my wife for a whole year on top of 8 months, my wife and I decided that she would join me in Iowa and live on my 'living stipend' until she was able to secure work. Now that my term of service is done, I now have the much sought after thing I need to finally get my way into the National Parks: Noncompetitive Appointment Eligibility with the Federal Government.

Within the Federal hiring system there are several special hiring authorities that essentially 'short-list' job candidates into a separate pool from the average U.S. citizen. Some of these special hiring authorities include Veterans' Recruitment Appointment (VRA), 30% Disabled Vets, Schedule A (persons with disabilities), and Peace Corps and VISTAs. These are usually in separate categories or have jobs especially open for these candidates. To date, I have not been selected for a status candidate job or other related hiring path, but am working seasonally for the Park Service now. Hopefully, I will continue to get some more phone call offer from some great parks, as I know they would love having me and I think that I would have a lot to contribute based on some of the things I have outlined here and hopefully get into a permanent position. If you are interested in trying to get into the National Parks or other parts of the Federal government, all their open jobs can be found at usajobs.gov.

Professional but fun-loving

The culmination of my experiences in college and teaching formally and informally helped define where I wanted to use my training, talent, and experiences in order to share my excitement about history and help shape visitor's experiences into meaningful memories. My work experience with two National Parks, and a historical interpretation site gave my practical lessons on working with the visiting public and an appreciation for the craft of interpretation. My time in VISTA helped me to become more empathetic with other people in situations similar to mine. It also opened my eyes to the poverty and need embedded deeply in America and that while I have suffered separation, low wages, long hours, long drives, and pressing need, I have seen the suffering of others in people lacking the ability to get enough resources as to be able to feed themselves. While I talk about passion as my intense drive and willingness to to go to places for low wages for my future, I interacted with people who have to suffer limited or no choices in how they live and whether they can afford to eat in true passion.

It has been a long road to here. As this new year is already underway I hope that the time, money, learning, and passion will produce a good result in a site that can recognize that I am a truly devoted and unique person who wants to live and love my passion for history and is willing to go long and far for what I love to do.