As Yellowstone Turns

"We are the biggest dysfunctional family in Wyoming for 3 months every winter."

A friend of mine is very fond of saying that, and I smile every time because it is true. There are about 120 employees who work here in the winter. We work together, live together, play together, dance together, fight together, and in some cases, sleep together. It can be a very intense environment, especially at this time of the year. We have been here for over 2 months and some of us have not left the park, some of us have not seen a car on wheels. Cabin fever is starting to set in. You can almost feel it in the air.

I know I am making it sound as if we are all best friends here but that is actually not the case. We all have our groups of people we choose to spend most of our time with, and there are people we know the names of and where they work and that is it. Some of us don't even like one another for various reasons but what makes us a family is that we all are here dealing with the same environment as everyone else.

Imagine you date someone for 2 years and things don't end well. You work with this person (common anywhere, not just here). Now imagine you are in the employee dining room eating and this person is there, you go to the employee pub and they are there, you walk the halls of your dorm and they are there, you are skiing to or from work and they are there...you get the picture. It's not just couples, or ex-couples who deal with that, it's friend, co-workers, managers and line employees, everyone. We all see each other everyday. This is the time of year when you might get sick of seeing everyone everyday.

With this intensity comes something else though. An appreciation for the community, deep friendships that may have taken years to develop anywhere else, a love for the park that you might not fully realize over the busy summers. This is where the Yellowstone Family is really at, and this family is not just contained by the boarders the the park, it extends everywhere that that former Yellowstoners are at. For example we raise money every winter for a worthy charity but this year the money that we raise is going to an awesome man who has worked here in the park for 30 years or more and who has found out he has cancer. There is also this huge benefit in West Yellowstone in March and Yellowstoners from all over Montana and Wyoming will be there to donate money and enjoy this person as part of the community. And that is just a small example of this place and its heart.

We may be one huge dysfunctional family but its one that I am proud to be a part of, much like my real family.