“A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, causing us to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” –Frank Herbert from “Dune.”
Jacob Coon is wide-awake and not afraid of change. A globe-trotting former Southwestern College and Hilltop High School student, Coon is powered by wanderlust and at home almost anywhere on the planet.
Coon, a 24-year-old Chula Vista native, recently came back from working at a salmon cannery in Alaska. A friend told him about the job, he said, and he decided to apply for fun. He got an interview the next day.
“Within a week I was on my way to work in Alaska,” he said.
Working 16-hour days, seven days a week was not worth the pay, he said. He had hoped to explore Alaska, but was tethered to the assembly line.
“After working 16-hour days all you really want to do is sleep,” said Coon. “We didn’t get a lot of time off, but when we did I was able to explore a little. It wasn’t until my family came to visit that I was really able to see Alaska.”
Coon described his job as being a line of human conveyor belts. He pushed cans into a metal crate, then shoved the crate into an oven.
“There were 300 cans per minute,” said Coon. “It was slave labor. It was gnarly and the pay wasn’t good. I was able to save money only because there wasn’t anywhere to spend it. Repetitive actions and being less than three feet away from the next person can definitely take its toll on a person.”
Tedium gave him time to think, though, and he was able to plan his next adventure.
“I knew I wanted to work for myself,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to start my own food truck, but the permits for that are really expensive. So I thought of the next best thing, an ice cream truck.”
Normally Coon worked the Mission Beach area, but once school let out he hit up the neighborhoods around his alma mater, Hilltop High. During the weekdays he worked four-to-five hour days, he said, and on weekends he did at least eight-hour days.
“I start at 9 a.m,” said Coon. “I head to one of the commissaries and fill up on those old school ice creams, dry ice and whatever other goodies I need. For the most part, the job is easy. The hardest part for me is keeping books, since I’m the only one accountable for everything. Sometimes I forget to write things down and forget how much I’m spending and earning.”
Coon said he plans to return to SWC as a business major for the spring 2014 semester. He started general education courses at SWC more than three years ago, then transferred to Humboldt College of the Redwoods to study forestry. He worked in landscaping and built a disk golf course.
Just 50 feet behind the campus is the Redwood Forest of “This Land is your Land.” During many of his classes he would walk through the forest for labs to study leaves and other plants.
“We would climb up these three 160-foot tall redwoods that grew extremely close to each other,” he said. “You’d climb halfway up one and transfer to the other tree. The branches were so big and secure that it was like walking on a spiral staircase. At about 130 feet up there is this giant hammock that we would hang out in. There was a rope that we would use to secure ourselves onto the hammock so we wouldn’t roll off if we fell asleep.”
Coon said he spent many nights up in that hammock, but up another 30-feet was an even greater experience.
“Someone shaved off the top of one of the trees and drilled down a chair,” he said. “It’s crazy scary sitting 160 feet up in a chair because you feel like you’ll fall out when the wind blows. So you’re sitting there, hands clutching the bottom of the chair, body tense, scared shitless for your life but the view from that high up the Redwood Forest is worth the fear.”
Beautiful redwoods were not enough to keep Coon rooted. Longing to escape the rain he returned to San Diego Count’s sunshine. Shortly after he applied to work at an organic farm in Hawaii and hopped on a jet for Maui.
“When I got to Hawaii, the farm owner said he did not have a job for me,” he said. “I didn’t have any money, so I slept on the beach, woke up, and surfed and looked for jobs for a month. Eventually I found two jobs and was able to find a new spot to sleep…on the roof of a building near my first job.”
Matt Chism said he met Coon at Christian Youth Theatre, and got to know him well when Coon joined the water polo team at Hilltop. Coon’s determination to find a way to survive says a lot about his character, said Chism.
“(Coon is) extremely charismatic, a bit of a social chameleon,” he said. “He managed to get more jobs in less than a year in Hawaii than I’ve had my entire adult life.”
Michael Thomas, a childhood friend of Coon, agreed.
“I have never thought of Jacob as having no willpower or having a bad work ethic,” he said. “Not much is able to overcome his seemingly never-ending optimism. His laid-back nature and overall goodness makes it so (challenges) in his life do not get under his skin easily.”
Coon said he stayed in Maui for about two years before coming back home. He said he plans to go to Tasmania soon to give tours and teach people to ride horses.
“Ultimately, I want to go to Costa Rica and live there,” he said. “I want to buy property on the beach and turn it into a surf resort, bed and breakfast.”
Chism said Coon’s traveling helps him to grow as a person.
“It’s inspiring to us who have stayed local,” said Chism. “He’s definitely diving into uncharted waters headfirst and that’s the quickest way to learn about yourself in the world.”
Thomas said he has known his friend for such a long time that he does not miss him when he is gone.
“I know that I will see him again because he can’t stay away from here for an extremely long time,” said Thomas. “Some of his adventures have helped him to become a very cultured person. Nothing will ever make Jacob grow up. It is his childish ways that make Jacob who he is.”
Coon said his favorite job was at The Arc in San Diego.
“We worked with special needs individuals,” he said. “They are high function enough to hold a job, but they need a little bit of help. They are awesome people and they were so much fun to be around. I still see them around and they always say hi to me and give me hugs.”
Coon said his time spent doing these different types of jobs in different parts of the world was worth it because he was able to make friends from South America, Europe and Australia.
“Travelling is crucial,” he said. “Every time you leave and come back, you grow. You expand your feeling of home. I can go to Maui, or Australia, or wherever and feel at home. I did that by making more friends and putting myself out there.”
