I worked outdoors for a year. I felt grounded and fulfilled, and it made me rethink wanting an office job.

• Rachel Hellman, 24, is a writer and bookstore employee based in New York.
• After graduating college in 2020, she joined a forest conservation and carpentry crew in Vermont.

I never imagined that living out of a tent in the woods of Central Vermont for three months would be my post-graduation plans, but that's where I found myself in fall 2020.

I graduated that spring and spent months applying to dozens of traditional 9-to-5 jobs with little luck. I majored in sociology and envisioned myself working in a related field such as journalism, and had spent the better half of my senior year preparing applications and networking.

But as the pandemic wore on, I found myself among a growing cohort of young people stuck with no other option than to get creative in their search for a job.

In mid-July while browsing the AmeriCorps website, I spotted an opening at the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps for crew members

They were looking for young people to do hands-on trail and conservation work throughout the state. I'd always loved spending time outdoors, so I applied on a whim. The VYCC primarily runs trail-building crews, but for the season I applied they were also offering a carpentry crew.

I was excited by the prospect of learning a new and useful skill like carpentry, so I marked it as my top preference. Much to my surprise, after submitting my application and going through multiple rounds of interviews, I ended up on a carpentry crew scheduled to begin in September.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was a nervous wreck in the weeks leading up to the start of the season — I wondered if I was just a little bit crazy in choosing to live without heat and electricity for three months. I spent hours researching the best sleeping bags and work boots and tried my best to prepare for whatever was ahead.

In September 2020, I packed a few bags and drove to Richmond, Vermont, where the VYCC headquarters are located, and met the four other young people on my crew who I'd be living with for the next few months. They'd all joined the corps for similar reasons as myself: They were frustrated college graduates, 20-somethings trying to figure it all out, and undergraduate students taking a semester off after half a year of online classes.

As the carpentry crew, it was our job to deal with carpentry-related tasks in the state parks we were assigned

For the first half of the season, we repaired lean-tos, which are simple three-wall structures that campers can use for shelter, in Groton State Forest. For the second half of the season we built composting toilets in campgrounds near Elmore State Park for hikers and campers to use during their adventures.

In our wood workshop, I learned how to use a circular saw and a table saw, how to follow a blueprint and cut to scale, and the basic mathematics of structurally sound construction. We joked that building the composting toilets was like Carpentry 101.

I immediately found a sense of deep fulfillment by working outdoors

It was physically exhausting work and I ended most of my days smelly, exhausted, sore, and cold, but it was also humbling to be working with my hands and gratifying to be making the parks more accessible and useful to visitors.

I was proud to have built composting toilets by hand and it was nice to see how they were appreciated by hikers passing by. As a woman, it felt especially empowering to be working in carpentry, a male-dominated field.

Since we all lived together in a string of tents, our crew became close friends by the end of the season

We spent evenings huddling around our campfire, talking about anything and everything that crossed our mind. We went on weekend hikes, learned how to identify different mushrooms and plants, and took polar-plunges in Lake Elmore and Lake Groton after work. We even made sourdough bread in the woods and went on a group kayaking trip.

We all took turns cooking, cleaning, and caring for our tools, and had no choice but to operate collectively and learn to work out conflict. Without the usual distraction of phones or the luxuries of hot water, comfortable beds, or pre-cooked meals, we had the rare opportunity to be vulnerable and forthcoming and truly get to know each other.

By the end of the season in November 2020, I'd nearly forgotten about my pre-pandemic work plans

The office didn't seem like such an appealing place to spend my time anymore after months of working outdoors. I wanted to continue to challenge myself and explore more outdoor work, so I applied to be a farm crew member at a number of farms in Central Vermont and landed a position at Field Stone Farm, a small-scale, women-owned and operated veggie farm in Northfield, Vermont.

I joined the farm in May and assisted in every step of getting food to market, from planting seeds, to harvesting veggies, to washing and packaging food for our CSA (community shared agriculture program).

I learned an incredible amount about regenerative farming, which uses practices aimed at promoting soil health and microbial activity to increase the vigor, vitality, nutrient density, and pest and disease resistance in crops.

It made me proud to see my neighbors purchase food I'd harvested, and I gained a newfound appreciation for the work that growers put in each and every day. I relished afternoons spent listening to the trees whoosh overhead as I weeded the carrot field and felt a great satisfaction in harvesting potatoes months after planting them.

In November, as the weather grew colder, the farming season came to a close. I found a part-time job closer to family in New York working at a bookstore that fittingly specializes in books about food, and began to pursue freelance environmental journalism with a newfound sense of purpose.

As I figure out my next move, I'm no longer so sure that my future will solely involve corporate work

I've discovered a deep sense of contentment in calling the outdoors my office, and have come to appreciate having sore muscles and dirty hands. Sure, there are rainy days and seasonal uncertainties to this type of lifestyle, but each day I worked outside, I woke up feeling grounded, grateful, and useful. Regardless of what I do next, I know working outdoors will be a part of the puzzle — nothing can replace the feeling of harvesting tomatoes you've sown into the ground, or sharing a meal around the campfire after a long day's work.