A huge part of choosing a career is finding something that really suits your personality. If you’re a dreamer who’s constantly coming up with crazy outside the box ideas, don’t do a job that tries to rein those qualities in. Go somewhere where your strengths will be appreciated and relied upon. You’re going to be spending 1/3 of every weekday working, so if you can’t be yourself, then you’re probably going to be leading a pretty miserable existence.
I worked with a forester named Peter Denney in Sundre for a couple of summers. I think many would call him a cowboy in that he loved his horses, wore a big hat sometimes and loved being outdoors (and his truck kind of smelled like a farm). But he wasn’t the stereotypical hard-nosed, rough and tumble type of man that’s usually associated with the word “cowboy”. He was a soft spoken, inviting man who had big dreams and a big heart. He took the personality trait of “dreamer” to a whole new level actually, sometimes so much so that he would fall asleep and dream at work while “thinking”. Pete really seemed to enjoy coming to work every day, further proven by the fact he worked in the Sundre Woodlands for 20 years until the tender age of 66. I’m guessing there are a few reasons he stuck around the office in Sundre for so long:
1) He loved the people – The people in Sundre are great and it’s easy to fit in and be yourself there.
2) His job allowed him to utilize his strengths (creativity) – As a planning forester, he could get his creative juices flowing.
3) He wanted to make a difference – Pete worked in Sundre for 20 years. He saw millions of trees planted and growing to the sky. He made decisions that are going to be visible in that forest for hundreds of years. His forest was managed sustainably and he could be proud of that.
Peter Denney enjoyed his retirement party a few short weeks ago, and unfortunately was taken from this world only days after that. He was passionate about forestry and enthusiastic about managing the great outdoors where he spent most of his time. Pete didn’t get much time to enjoy his retirement, but he got to spend his entire career working jobs that he loved. He got to live the lifestyle he wanted, in the community he wanted to be in, and make a difference every day. I hope that during his wagon ride into the sunset he can look over what he’s done and truly understand that he’s made a difference in the lives of his family, friends, and co-workers and also done a lot for the forests of the province. He even made an impact on one summer student who only worked with him for 8 months and followed him into the world of planning forestry.
You spend a huge portion of your life working, so why not have a job that you enjoy like Peter did? Everyone deserves that reward. My heart goes out to the Denney family. A special shout-out to Matt “Pickles” Denney who’s a great person, friend and co-worker.
