He says, "I was going to school full time, taking summer sessions and going to school year round. I was burned out. I was pursuing three different majors, but I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. I took leisure management, which is like studying to manage health spas. Geology had really interested me, and then I was also studying microbiology."
Facing the option of a master's degree, Jason decided to bail and take a summer off, to climb for a while in Yosemite, to think about what he wanted to do. Time passed, and, "Then I worked at Walmart for three years and had been coming out to climb and fiddle around. By my third year at Walmart, my friend Mark said, why don't you just apply at the Ahwahnee?"
The Ahwahnee is a giant and unusually beautiful hotel in the Yosemite Valley. It was built in 1927 in an exotic blend of frontiersmen, Middle-Eastern and Native American decor.
He says, "They tell me, I can come in, take a piss test and if I make it, i'm hired. I called my boss at Walmart and gave my notice. I tied up some loose ends, found a place for my dogs to live and soon enough I was here."
Jason is one of those people who wants to share everything with anybody about living in Yosemite and climbing the great walls of the Valley. He shares stories with parents and children alike. Of his move, he says, "It was one of the scariest things I ever did and the best thing I ever did for myself. It seems like whenever I took a risk the benefits were gigantic. There is this book called Road Trip Nation. It's just amazing what that book says."
Road Trip Nation is all about telling everybody off who tells you to be a lawyer or a doctor. The book follows two young men on a trip across the country, making a living their own way.
