The End of ND

I am officially done with the rigs. I put in my time, I made my money, and now in three hours I'll be on a train bound for Vancouver, WA.
I've really been done with the rigs for a couple weeks now. My last day was on New Years. These last couple weeks I've been seeing a lot of family and besides that pretty much all I did was manage to sell my piece of garbage car for a whopping $250. She was old, lots of body damage, lots of leaks - not worth fixing and not really worth anything in general.
So now I'm packed up. I came here with two bags, now I'm leaving with four. Simplicity.
The next steps include finishing all my paperwork for Korea, seeing friends in the PNW, and find some temporary work.
I guess that's a really brief summary of what's been happening lately. As for the last three months...
I worked on a really great crew for my last few months in the Bakken oilfields. For the most part we all got along really well, nobody got hurt, etc. But after a while I kept hearing stories of guys who would get hurt or even die on other rigs and thought that if anything like that ever happened to me then I'd live with a whole lot of regret, knowing that I came out here for nothing but some coin and ended up disabled or what have you. Aaaand I just was not up for that. So now I'm leaving with all limbs, fingers, etc. and some money in my pocket too, which is great.
But I don't regret coming out here for a second. I paid off a lot of debt, as intended - about 15% of my college education. Not bad. Also I got to do something that a lot of people never will - I got to work in a very unique work setting, unlike any other setting I've ever worked in or ever will. The rigs really are something else. Working there is different not only because of the danger, the weird hours, the muddiness, the heavy machinery, but also because it's a place where, for the most part, you can really be yourself. You can say almost anything you want and there are no consequences for it (again, almost anything). You can goof around, joke a lot with the guys you work with, swear all the time, talk about the gnarstiest topics of covo, and pee almost ANYWHERE and not get charged for public indecency. Phenomenal.
And I can say that I've worked with a very diverse crowd too. For a lot of them, they're working here for a reason - nowhere else they're going to find a job that pays this much. A lot of them have a whole ton of kids to support ( I me three guys who were paying $2000/mo in child support. woof.) and really wouldn't be able to do so elsewhere - the money's so geewd out here. And that was all great, but like I mentioned before, at what price? I'm glad I got out of it when I did. Now maybe I can actually use my degree after having it for almost two years now.
And yes, I could have stuck it out here longer and saved more money, paid off more debt but I figured, well, I really have about zero responsibilites so it really won't kill me financially to leave this place. I'll find something better elsewhere. Time to do something I liiiike.
But things did end well with the company. I was told that if I ever wanted to come back then I'd be welcome. Always a good thing. But here's hoping I'll be rolling in the cash elsewhere.
Back to my thoughts on working out here - I now have a lot more knowledge on tools...and drilling (which I might not use in the future)... but the biggest thing is knowing that I can work a lot. and under shitty conditions (thirty below zero temps with wind chill, getting covered in mud, standing on swollen angles for a whole week). So after all this I know that I can endure a whole lot of work and pain and exhaustion and come out of it just fine. So bring on more work. If I can stick it out on the oil rigs in ND then I can stick it out just about anywhere. Amiriiiight?
Man, I'm glad I didn't end up doing this forever. Before I left my dad would say, "you never know what you'll end up doing. Like your mom, she wasn't that excited to start her first job out here and she ended up doing it for years!" (paraphrasing), saying that I might end up doing this for a very long time. Like I said, it's good to be out. There's quite a culture out here that is not too desirable - you might not want to surround yourself with and maybe end up like a lot of these roughnecks - divorced multiple times, supporting endless amounts of kids, smoking til they cough up a lung (on the daily), chewing tobacco (I tried it a couple times, puked, and I was done), hating their jobs - stuff. like. that. And really, the job just wasn't for me. I showed up on time every day, I did what I was told, had a good attitude, but wasn't the best at it. And that's something that I am looking forward to - not only finding a job that I enjoy, but also something that I'm good at. The whole thing was a good experience, but not for a lifetime.
I think that sums up most of my thoughts on the six months out there. If I see you in person, I'll most definitely have more stories. I'd share them online, but I'd rather be there with you and laugh while I told them.
Here's to the next couple months of uncertainty.