Bad Brad the Nomad

What is a nomad, well wikipedia defined it as people who move from one place to another without permanently settling down. Up till about a year ago, that is what I did. From April of 2005 to March of 2008. And let me tell you some of my so-called adventures, they are really quite lame, but they were fun. I lived in North Carolina for about three or four months in the spring and summer of 2005, to work at a wilderness program for troubled teenagers. I loved it at first. I was making good money and getting trained in some cool stuff. And I was also working long shifts. I was the head of a group of 10 guys who have had a history of being in gangs, drugs, violence, and even burglary. I had help at first, maybe for like the first two weeks and then they turned the reigns over to me and I'll tell you what, teenagers smell fear like bears. It really made want to travel on my days off, which were short and rare. And I did, I traveled the beaches, the steakhouses and even went to the Duke and UNC campuses and NC State as well. I left to go back to Texas to work at a much more rural wilderness program in the Davey Crockett National Forest of east Texas. I had a job where the average stay at the job, wilderness field guide, was 3 months. I stayed there for 30 months. For two and a half years, I led groups of very well to do kids, into the wilderness and hiking at least two maybe three miles a day with at least 30 or 50 lbs of equipment on your back. The one thing I liked about this job, is that I worked eight days on and got eight days off. There was this one time where I worked 21 days without a break and I almost went crazy when that shift was over. But anyways, I traveled the great state of Texas and occasionally up to Oklahoma. I didn't pay a rent bill for over three years when I had these jobs. It was awesome. I had friends in Ft. Worth and Austin. I had family in College Station, west Texas, and Oklahoma.

But throughout all this, I found out who I was what I stood for. I had a lot of free time on my hands and sometimes I used it wisely like when I was out on the golf course or in a small prayer group with loved ones. I rediscovered my desire for nature and learning lots about the surrounding areas. I learned how to make fire with a string and sticks, it was awesome. I started reading a lot and it is something that still do. I think in 2007, I tried to remember how many books I read and I think it totaled somewhere near 40 or 50, no joke. I loved just waking up early some mornings and watching the sunrise by a fire and thinking how grateful I was for the new day. I have lost that after being in the city for a while now and I need to get that back in my life. I take stuff for granted these days and I worry about a lot of pity stuff like when will I be able to go to the gym or what am I going to get to eat and at what fast food place. Out on the road and in the wilderness, I was free and I was comfortable with just being one with nature. I forgot all the media and the happenings. I didn't watch the Super Bowl from 2005 - 2008, because of work and I didn't care. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I know it is a lot easier said then done. But it works, at least it did for me when I was Bad Brad the Nomad, and I don't think I have ever really been more at peace then I was during those Wilderness years, except North Carolina, I fell apart and had to rebuild myself up, it was a long hard process but I am stronger for having gone through it. I want to quite worrying about the national championships, I will still cheer my teams on, but when they lose the big one or when I'm watching them on T.V. I won't get upset and let it ruin my day if things don't happen the way I want it to. I am going to quite making sports my world. Here recently I quite softball, and I love softball, to make time for some prayer time with friends on Thursday nights and it was a lot easier to give it up then I thought it would be. Softball and sports won't always be there for me but my Lord and Savior will be.