I am working with and mentoring this very innocent 22 year old who has just started in the oil field. I’m trying to give her all the advice I wish I had when I was that fresh in the oil field. I’m not sure all of it is sticking, some is defiantly going in one ear and out the other. She is so funny and spunky, and at the very same time she is just so dumb!
The boys have started referring to me as a Rig Mom. A tittle I am perfectly okay with. I cooked French toast for them once and they all think I’m all right. But everyone has realized I have taken our young senorita under my wing. While working nights we have covered a huge range of advice. Take your Vitamin D, wear layers and insolated boots, it gets cold out here, good quality wool socks are your friend, show up to shift on time, and ask lots of questions. That’s the general advice not to mention the rig specific advice. We covered how to store food to keep away from mice, we covered what to do when there is a mouse in the trailer, we covered how to set a mouse trap, and what to do when the mouse trap works…. Did I mention we had mice? It is winter and they try to come snuggle in our shakes but the war is fast and swift with annihilation for them and victory for us.
It’s nice to pass on all the knowledge I have learned over the last 6 years. Everything from how to clean the gross mud off your clothes, to what to get from town, and what to never skimp on. (Hint: you can skimp on a lot of things but never skimp on toilet paper and Dawn dish soap). Probably the most useful piece of advice I have given her so far is don’t sleep with anyone on the rig. The weather is defiantly changed out here we have had our first snowfall of the year already with more on the way. So most of my advice is weather related and I’ve been handing it out to not only her but my coworker who is looking at his first winter in the oil field. It’s not yet cold enough to plug in the car but the time is coming soon.
I have been thinking about age a lot these days. After I realized that my 30th birthday is only a few months away. I don’t feel like I could be approaching 30 I feel like I just started this job yesterday and it’s still new. But working with this young kid throws in to sharp relief just how many winters I have been doing this. I have more stories to tell all the time. This far north it’s all about how many winters you survive. Snow storms, ice storms, blizzards, how many times you get snowed in on the rig. These are how we count the winters. I look how my life could have been very different if I had not taken this job. I see friends who are having their second kid because they want to. At the end of the day the roads not taken don’t matter because this is the life I have and I wouldn’t change it for all the fish in the sea.