After growing up in South Dakota and serving in the Marine Corps, I got my first brush with the beautiful state of Wyoming. Since then, I have been a carpenter in Cody, a gunsmith in Meeteetse and a student in Lander. During my time here, I’ve fallen in love with Wyoming. I’ve spent time hiking, biking, climbing, and skiing. I’ve spent even more time forming relationships with the wonderful people who live here. Now, as a 30-year-old, I am ready to settle down and start a life somewhere. I’m not sure, however, if Wyoming can be — or is — that place. For the time being, I have decided to stay and try to make it work, but just a few weeks ago, I wasn’t so sure.

Over the past couple of months, my partner and I have made some pivotal life decisions. Like many millennials, we face daunting pressures to get advanced degrees (and burden ourselves with enormous amounts of debt), chase high-paying jobs, move to the big city, and save up for our first house in the midst of a difficult financial market. We were succumbing to these pressures, but it didn’t align with the vision we had for ourselves. Where was the small farm with a greenhouse, chickens, and goats? Where was the deer salami and smoked trout hanging in the cellar?

When I was growing up in Thermopolis, I spent my time fishing, hunting, and running wild in the Owl Creek Range. When we weren’t doing any of that, we were either in the canyon, floating the river, cliff jumping, racing BMX bikes, or climbing.

I came to Wyoming in 1974 and stayed because its future looked promising. The prairies of Campbell County were sprouting surface coal mines, and new power plants were being built to burn the millions of tons that the massive mines produced. Oil and gas had long been here, but we did not yet know of the bounties that fracking, coal bed methane and interstate pipelines would bring. In a state so friendly to the energy industry it was easy to be convinced that riding the coattails of the coming booms would make for a good career. That proved to be true and Wyoming treated me very well.