“Most people work fifty weeks a year so they can do this the other two. Well the smart ones live in a ski resort, where the boss lets them have powder snow days off.  And almost forty feet of snow falls every winter, that’s a lot of days off.  A lot of doing what you moved here to do.  Most major ski resorts are now so big that regardless of what kind of job you have in a city, there’s probably a job almost exactly like yours in a ski resort like this.  So quit your job and rent that U-haul trailer now so next winter this can be you.  Not you just sitting there watching this and wishing that this was you.” -Warren Miller

I’m a regular college student at the University of Maryland. While most of my business-major-friends can’t wait to retire in West Palm Beach and play 100 holes of golf, I would do anything to ski 100 days a year in some ski town.

My brother and I just spent a month of our winter break bumming around Park City, a lifestyle most of my friends don’t understand. They frequently asked me, “don’t you get bored skiing everyday?” (WHAT?!?!). Of course not. And on my one-month escapade, I came across many people who would share the same response. All people seeking refuge in a ski town.

Ex-nurses now working one job or another on the mountain. Lifetime ski patrollers. A ski bum with a real estate license. Just a regular ski bum. Wounded warriors. Retired pro skiers. Retired pro surfers. Retired doctors. Australians, Frenchmen, Canadians.

People from all walks of life, all in a ski town, permanently or temporarily (some permanent but they just don’t know it yet), for one reason or another.

Even on my flight from BWI to SLC, I sat next to a young mother with a beautiful, yet screaming baby girl. Although she was definitely one of those mothers that was eager to start a family, she was quick to tell me of the year she spent after college selling lift tickets at Jackson Hole, and encouraged me to do the same.

I have witnessed the “ski town effect” first-hand. As a family, we have traveled to ski towns from Ludlow, Vermont to Truckee, California. As soon as we vacationed to Park City one summer, my parents were hooked. We are now proud owners of a townhouse and proud to call Park City our second home. While my parents are more than happy as practicing dentists in Carroll County, Maryland, it’s no mistake they are in Park City for a long weekend about once a month, no matter the season.

If you do not know what your future holds for you, then follow the wise words of Warren Miller. Even if your job requires you to sit at a desk all day, I bet you would rather be sitting at a desk near a mountain than at a desk near the Empire State Building.