I am a descendent of people with unmatched perseverance, pioneers that endured tragedy and hardship I will never understand. They undoubtedly did things they and I would never be proud of; but I am here in the land that they sacrificed everything they knew for, a life that they felt was worth losing loved ones and children to get to. Manifest destiny is the root of my heritage and the call that brought my family home. I am still here thanks to the generations since, who shaped what I would someday become: A traveling preacher with a famously booming voice and a memorial still in his honor today, watching over the church he and his wife raised in the 1890's. Founders of a town in the south of the state that not only still exists but is now home to over 8,000 people. Moonshiners and bootleggers that made a living working with the land, and their circumstances to survive. Veterans that served in World War I, Korea, and Desert Storm. Blue collar folk and ranchers that knew how to use their hands to support the life they wanted. Women that could hold down a household, raise their babies, and stay true to being tough old birds with a moral compass that was well calibrated. The kind that were a soft place to land when stray kids in the family needed tough love and a break from home. Rockhounds that pulled magic out of mines and mountain sides. Hunters who stalked the same mountains I am trying to learn to feed my family with. Working class people that had to learn the balance between family, work, play, and survival. I get to have pieces of all of this whittled into my bones, an internal road map of endurance. I may be a lot of things, but those before me made one thing clear: we got no quit in us. There were years where they would probably not have claimed me, or at least given me an ear full for being so unsure of who I was or what I stood for. But I made my way back like a prodigal son, and I like to think they'd nod their their heads to acknowledge- there she is, knew she'd make it home. Like the rash of unwise choices I made for more years than I'd like to claim, there are things about this ancestry that make me ashamed. But I cannot change history, I wasn't there. So I choose to be proud of being a descendent of strong people who know pain and sacrifice in ways that this modern world will never understand again. I may not have clout, fame, or wealth, but I am a native Oregonian whose veins are mapped with forests and rivers that predate us all. This home will never be what it once was, but as I live and breathe I will appreciate everything it provides and remember those who brought me here, and have made me who I am.