I first watched a sunset at the Grand Canyon when I was a kid.

I remember waiting at the rim, doing mad libs with my parents to pass the time as the colors started to streak across the sky. I loved my time there, but I hadn’t yet thought about being a ranger.

I next watched a sunset at the Grand Canyon as a part of a class when I was in college. I had just accepted my first NPS seasonal job, at another park. Watching that sunset, I felt like I might just be becoming a part of something bigger than me.

Sometimes in the NPS we joke that we are “paid in sunsets.” But the next time I watched a sunset at the Grand Canyon, I was actually getting paid, because I was back as a seasonal Grand Canyon employee. I got to watch a lot of sunsets, but the last one that season was the hardest. The rim of the canyon was mostly empty due to the temporary COVID closure. I cried, not knowing when I would be back, and not knowing what the future would look like, for me or for the NPS.

The last time I saw a Grand Canyon sunset I had come back to the canyon for NPS Fundamentals at the Albright Training Center. Walking along the canyon rim, watching the colors streak across the sky, this time I cried because the rim was no longer empty. It was full of visitors from all over the world and NPS colleagues from every department. I was a year into being a permanent employee of the Park Service, and by then I knew that I was a part of something bigger than me. But the training opened my eyes to so much more. I got to connect with colleagues from across the park service, who worked in so many different fields. I listened to their perspectives, and I learned about the work they did, the places they cared about, and the difference they made to their parks, and to our country. We worked together to tackle complex problems, to think deeply about how we could be a part of making the NPS better for everyone. The trainers, each of whom had years and years of experience with the NPS, guided us expertly through it all. I left feeling inspired, energized, and eager to continue my career in the NPS.

It breaks my heart that future staff won’t have this experience. Without a dedicated training center bringing NPS staff together and connecting them deeply with the agency’s mission and each other, the NPS is losing something important. Those powerful connections cannot be replaced by online trainings or videos.

I hope that I get to watch a sunset at the Grand Canyon again. And I hope that when I do, I can look forward to the sun rising on a better future for the NPS than what it feels like right now. And I know that if I do, it will be because the people of the National Park Service came together to make that better future possible.

—Anonymous