“I was born in the old hospital, Mary Hitchcock. I graduated from Hartford High in 2007, but I didn’t really know if I wanted to go to college. I was a big outdoorsman.
My best friend ended up working for an outfitter guiding hunts, so the fall that I graduated, I chose to be a hunting guide instead of going to college. I was a hunting guide for 5 years in Illinois. That is a 4-month stint, so I would be out there in the fall. I met a lot of nice people – the people that go on guided hunts come from all over the nation. I could have customers from Pennsylvania, Vermont, Florida, anywhere. That also led me to have a better understanding, at 18 years old, that you shouldn’t judge people. I made some really good friends.
I never would have stopped if I had gotten a consistent regimen, like going from being a hunting guide in Illinois to being a fishing guide in Alaska. The first month or so out there we were like, ‘Man, we have to go home?’ Then next thing you know, by the end, you are ready to go home. Honestly, it’s really just a sense of comfort. You want to get out of your comfort zone, but then you realize how comfortable it is to come back home.
I take a lot of pride in being a business owner up here. There is a big sense of pride in taking care of myself and taking care of other people. And I do get myself in situations where I let other people down, so I have to let go of that pride. But on the day to day, there is a pride in meeting new people, knowing new people, and taking care of new people, as opposed to just going through the motions.
I think my five-year plan is just to be able to live a little more comfortably. I don’t need to be a millionaire, just live comfortably. I am at the point in my life where if someone offered more money and the opportunity to travel, I wouldn’t take it. I will go on adventures, like elk hunts in Colorado and stuff, and I’ll be there for two weeks. At the end of it, I’m like: Can’t wait to see my dogs. Can’t wait to go home.
My twenty-year plan: I’d like to have kids. I am building a house right now – I would like to finish that. Just have a family. My girlfriend is going to school locally to be a nurse. And, obviously, I have the business to take care of, so progress on the house is going slow. As far as the homestead, I want a clean lawn, a long driveway. It’s just finding time between work and going home to take care of everybody. That’s Upper Valley living!”
– Luke Bellavance, Hartford, VT
