[music]
- LINDSAY STROUP: I like my brain to be busy.
I mean, that's when I'm happiest:
when my brain's busy, I'm trying to solve something.
My first two years at school I got my nursing prereqs,
and then right before I applied to nursing school
I was just like, "Nah."
I'm studying wildlife biology at West Texas A&M University.
I don't have any student loans so far, and I would have
to take out student loans for an apartment.
I was looking at the rent around Canyon
and that was real expensive.
I researched about the volunteer opportunities
and I just came across being a park host.
In the description it says you can keep your camper up there,
you get a camp spot for while you're working,
and so I was like, "Hmm... that's interesting."
I looked up the distance between here and my school
and it wasn't bad; it's like 10 minutes.
Everybody thought I was crazy, like, "What do you mean you're
going to live in a camper?"
Cheetos doubling as cheese.
Don't judge me.
I'm out of cheese slices.
I was real fortunate that my grandparents let me use
their camper.
Since it's just me and my dog and my snake,
it's really all the space we need.
It's a great way to go through college.
- Lindsay is a little different.
She's at a totally different end of the spectrum than what
we typically see in our park host program.
We have some regular folks that volunteer with us.
Park hosts are staffed at each one of our camping loops.
- KEN WATSON: Hackberry to headquarters with a site count.
- RADIO VOICE: Go ahead.
- You can't have or expect park staff to be on-site
24 hours a day in a camping loop,
but with park hosts, they can be there.
- KEN: Good morning folks!
How are you?
- LACRETA: You have required site counts.
- Are you leaving today?
- No, we'll be here one more night.
- LACRETA: And you're responsible for keeping
bathrooms stocked and clean.
- KEN: Okay, dear, it's all clear.
They're short-handed.
There's no way to fill that gap other than with
volunteer services.
- VISITOR: What's your name?
- My name's Ken.
- Ken, I'm Eric.
- KEN: We are the best, and the first, and the most available
point of contact for campers.
Then you'll see another little intersection right there.
- JEFF DAVIS: There's a lot of stuff that we could not do
as successfully without our volunteers.
Most of them, I would say, are retirees.
And they do everything from keeping the restroom in their
loop clean, to helping at the gatehouse, to helping with
interpretive programs.
And if they have special skills then we make use of that too.
- LINDSAY: They need more projects to do anyway.
- JEFF: You know, we didn't start out intending it to be
like an internship, but the experiences that she's gaining
is very much like one.
She's just starting her working life, so she just has
a little different perspective on things.
- SHANNON: The primary use for that property...
Lindsay is not jaded by some of the boundaries of life
that some people know because of their experiences.
She knows no bounds at this point.
That's contagious, so it's been wonderful for my staff
for her to just be here.
- LINDSAY: It's a job, that you don't hate.
You're not like "Ah, I gotta go to work!"
You know?
I will work out in the field if they need me there.
If they don't really need me anywhere at the moment,
I just kind of figure out something that needs to
be done with the park, like either pick up trash,
or help clean out one of the camp loops, bathrooms,
stuff like that.
I mean, I prefer this over working somewhere else.
[music]
I lived in an apartment before this, a house, an apartment,
I never lived in a camper.
[car on gravel]
It is a little challenging balancing everything.
Sometimes you get sightseers in the park and if I was running
late to class or something, then I might be a little
extra late after that.
[footsteps]
As I've gone along through the semester,
I've been balancing it better.
Good time management skills.
- Remember with waterfowl, we have how many flyways?
- LINDSAY: I would really like to be a wildlife biologist.
I've learned a lot from just living out here.
It's relaxing in some ways and it's exciting at the same time.
I thought it was too good to be true.
You get to live in a beautiful place and be a part of
something bigger than yourself.
You feel right at home.