Twenty Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago to this day – March 16th – marks the first time Kelly Carpenter stepped foot on Orcas Island. She has never had to write the date down in order to remember it.

Raised on a small farm in rural Minnesota, Kelly’s aspirations after graduating from college with a greenhouse production degree involved anything in the field of horticulture. The problem was Minnesota’s winters. How do you have year-round horticulture work when half of each year involves thick snow on the ground? You don’t!

Kelly wasn’t interested in remaining in her college town after she graduated, so she moved back home with her parents temporarily in order to figure out her next step in life. Ideally, she wanted to own a lawn care business. She always had visions of living on the East Coast in Maine or Massachusetts, but that presented the same winter conundrum as living in the Midwest.

Every night after working at a pizza place near her hometown, she would relax and unwind by getting on the internet – the old dial-up routine back then on her parents’ living room computer – and searching through classified ads in the greenhouse industry. Her aunt had helped her put together a resume, and she set about responding to various ads around the country each evening.

“I did not keep track. I did not have a method to my madness…I did not keep a list of where I was sending my resumes. But I do specifically remember some company in New Hampshire calling me and telling me that they weren’t hiring until they would open in the spring.”

Kelly needed work, though, immediately. Year-round work. “I soon realized that anywhere on the East Coast was not going to happen for me.

“Somehow, I must have applied to a company on Orcas Island. But again, I was not keeping track of where I was applying. I just knew I needed to press the restart button and relocate for a fresh start.” The idea of this was refreshing and exciting to her. “I’m a practical person, but I’m also very adventurous.”

Kelly grew up in a very loving, supportive, hard-working family. She loved her childhood, and always had acres and miles of land and forest in which to play, bike, and dream up daily adventures. Her parents worked hard while raising their five children, and Kelly can’t remember them ever complaining about the daily demands they faced. All the kids had roles in the work as well.

“We didn’t have much money, but we were happy together. My parents did so much with the little they had. They taught us how to work hard and how to be accountable and resilient…all those Midwest values were very real.”

Kelly wanted to be a farm girl forever, but she knew there was something else out there for her. She starting having thoughts in middle school and high school about seeing what else was out in the world. She just had a feeling she wasn’t going to stay in Minnesota for the rest of her life.

When she graduated from college, she felt like her options dwindled. She had made some mistakes that caused some hardships and feelings of regret. “I felt like I wasn’t living a good life or that I deserved a good life. There had to be more to my life than the life I was living. I needed a new chapter.”

Kelly’s discontentment drove her to pursue what was over the horizon when she sat down every night and replied to ads around the country. Her younger brother, who knew what she was doing, said, “What are you thinking?” But Kelly never once questioned it. She was determined.

One night, her mom called her at work and said that a woman in a place called Orcas Island had called and wanted to hire Kelly. Her parents were a bit surprised but when they got the atlas out, they all realized it was “a pretty easy route” from Minnesota to Washington.

Kelly thought, “I’m moving, I’m doing it!”

Not long after, she received a package from the employer on Orcas Island with maps and a ferry schedule. “I had never been on a ferry. I had never even seen the mountains! I was a Minnesota farm girl, so there were a lot of new experiences wrapped up in this idea of moving to Orcas Island.”

She went for it. Kelly packed up her little car with belongings and her parents packed up theirs with more. They all set out on March 14, 2002, headed for a little island they had never previously heard of off the coast of Washington State.

Kelly’s parents stayed on the island for a few days while she got situated. Kelly’s new boss was providing housing for her, and her job and accommodations were out past the ferry landing.

Then her parents had to leave. “It must have been so hard for them to go back after leaving me there on Orcas, driving over 1,500 miles and having all those hours to think and talk about it.”

Kelly had a plan, though. Her aim was to work a few years, get experience in the industry, save money, and move on so that someday she could count on having the lawn care service she had her mind set on.

Not long after moving here, Kelly realized how alone she was. A few months went by, and she started working as a hostess and busser at Deer Harbor Inn. It would solve two problems – she could keep busy since she didn’t know very many people and she could save more money. After meeting Ryan Carpenter, she quickly realized she might never be leaving the island.

Other epiphanies began to sink in as well. That feeling in her from years before, the one that told her to think outside of her Minnesota farm town, it resonated with this place. “My soul needed to be by water. Once I moved here, I just knew this is what I always needed – the mild climate, hiking trails, beaches, everything about the Pacific Northwest region – I knew I needed it…Being here felt right.”

“And Ryan was everything I wanted but didn’t think I deserved.”

Kelly also quickly began to realize that landscape work might not be her desired career. Perhaps a hobby, but not her profession of choice. “What do I do? I’m here, on Orcas, and now I’m not sure what my next step is.”

She remembered that both her middle school English teacher and her track coach had pegged her as a future teacher someday. Deep down, Kelly had always thought of becoming a teacher but didn’t believe in herself enough to think she could attend college for that long. However, one day Ryan got the Skagit Valley College course guide and said, “You can do this!”

Kelly started all over again, commuting to Friday Harbor for classes. She and Ryan got married and lived above the restaurant. Kelly later transferred to Western Washington University, and they had a little place by Western where Kelly would stay for longer periods of time to focus on her studies. She treated her new teaching coursework like a job, and routinely took 20 credits per quarter as well as summer courses. “I just knew I wasn’t going to be happy unless I was a teacher.”

Today, Kelly celebrates 20 years of being an Orcas Islander, and this spring marks 20 years of life with Ryan. They have two children – Gus, 11, and Joselyn, 13 – and Kelly has been a part of Orcas Island School District for over 10 years.

“It’s hard being away from my family when I think about all the things I’ve missed in the Midwest. But everything has worked out. Ryan is extremely kind and respectful. We balance each other well. He’s patient and easy-going, and our personalities work well together. I have very supportive people around me, which is important. I’m not hard on myself anymore. I give myself a lot more grace. I try to be the best I can be as a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an employee. I value hard work – it’s ingrained in me.

“I am constantly amazed at the beauty here. Looking at the sun’s reflection on the water is so therapeutic.

“I’ve tried being a city girl but I’m just a farm girl, a small-town girl.”

Thank you, Kelly, for telling me your story.