An interpretive park ranger at Salem Maritime National Historical Park, McKenna Switzer ties her story into the quilt of the area’s history.
SALEM, MA — McKenna Switzer says all roads in her life so far have led to Salem.
The journey has been marked by unexpected and sometimes sharp turns, but the signs were always present, guiding Switzer to destinations and experiences she can only describe as kismet.
“Nothing in my life, good or bad, is a coincidence,” the 30-year-old, who up until now has led a nomadic lifestyle that social media influencers call “van life,” told Patch.
Switzer’s journey starts in Orange County, California. She loathed living there, describing it as a place “where it sometimes kind of feels like everybody’s kind of hands-on-your-throat.”
“I knew it was never meant for me, and that it was never a place I would call home,” she said. “One day, I simply decided to move.”
That was in 2018. She was 23 at the time. Fresh with grief over the loss of her childhood “soul dog,” Maggie — “It was devastating and gut-wrenching and everything losing a pet is,” she said — Switzer set off for Arizona, unsure what to expect.
“But something in me told me it was right, that as long as I follow that innate sense of knowing, I will be OK,” she said.
She had been in Phoenix for a couple of years when she met her human soul mate. Her name was Maggie, like Switzer’s beloved dog, and she read it ss a sign, a cue from the universe that she had found the home she had been searching for.
“From that moment on, everything completely changed,” she said. “It was a whirlwind, the most beautiful relationship, and I had never seen it coming.”
The idea of a travel life wasn’t completely foreign to Switzer. She had imagined it and thought about it wistfully. “But I didn’t know a way I could do this,” she said. “It’s not the most lucrative of jobs.”
‘OK, We’re Doing This’
With Maggie, the self-imposed boundaries and limitations failed to hold much reason.
“Life really took us by the reins — OK, we’re doing this,” Switzer said. “I never dreamed this would be my life, living with just insurmountable gratitude, no matter what happens, and all the challenges that come with living on the road.”
It was a serendipitous life but also “very purposeful,” she said, correcting herself, “extremely purposeful.”
Their travel life began in 2023. Previously, they had lived and worked as naturalists for a year and a half in Grand Canyon National Park, a gig that came with a house. Later, they would travel in their converted bus to the Everglades in Florida and Moose Pass, Alaska, for seasonal gigs as naturalists and innkeepers
“These stories follow me everywhere,” she said. “They do not go unnoticed, and they are only filled with the utmost gratitude and clarity. Everywhere I walk, every person I have been, has all been on purpose.”
‘I Fell In Love With This City’
In some cases, the purpose was pure whimsy. In 2023, Switzer and Maggie parked their bus on Winter Island, the peninsula overlooking downtown Salem. They were only there for three days, but Switzer knew she wouldn’t soon shake the city’s hold on her after such a short time.
“Here,” Switzer said, “I fell in love with this city.”
Salem tugged at her again last year.
Switzer was offered a job by the Salem Maritime National Historical Park, but by the time it came, she and Maggie had already committed to becoming innkeepers at Moose Pass, Alaska. They were due to fly out the next day.
“Heartbreakingly, I had to turn it down,” she said. “But I promised my interviewer that I would be back.”
This year, she kept the promise. She’s an interpretive park ranger at the park, established in 1938 as the first national historic site in the United States to preserve and tell 600 years’ worth of stories of New England’s maritime history.
The job she had turned down a year earlier was posted again, on the one day out of 30 that Switzer just happened to open check messages in a secondary email inbox.
There it was again, kismet, as if another portal had opened for Switzer.
Switzer needed a soft place to land.
‘This Was The Start Of Me’
In Alaska, life with Maggie had crashed and burned.
“It was here that my entire world shattered, and my heart was broken open when I initiated our divorce,” she said. “This was the start of me.”
With love and romance spicing the travel life, Switzer hadn’t seen how chaotic and temporary it all was. It’s not that she regrets or would do any of it differently. Seizing the moment is, after all, her mantra.
But she needed to belong somewhere.
Her marriage had ended, she reflected later in a poem, “because I beg for too much from the wrong people in the wrong places and tried to make houses within them all, because I’ve never known what it truly feels like to be home.”
“Travel life is nothing permanent, and your sense of community is what you build around yourself,” she said. “I felt disoriented and like I didn’t belong anywhere. A gust of wind could’ve blown me away.”
‘I Knew I Would Be Back In Salem’
She bounced back to Phoenix last fall, took a job at the Grand Canyon. When that didn’t work out, she went back to Phoenix.
Then the forces of the universe summoned her to Salem. After moving every few months, Switzer finally feels settled in Salem.
“I knew I would be back in Salem, I just didn’t know how,” she said. “I love a tourist town. There’s something about a place that people dream of coming to — it’s contagious. There’s so much excitement when people get here and are so curious and want to learn more about Salem’s history and richness.”
Switzer is happy to oblige them. Writing people into the story is practically an interpretive park ranger’s job description.
“We do our research, bring people to the place, and people to themselves at the same time,” she said. “Being able to do that is just my life’s work. I feel like I have a purpose, that I have found what I was looking for.”
‘Make The Leap’
Switzer says if there’s a takeaway for others, it’s this:
“Living the life I have lived, I very much understand that wherever I’m meant to be, that it was sent to me, and I trust myself.”
“People say they could never do that. You are the author of your own life. If you trust in yourself, don’t hesitate. Don’t question it. Lean into that trust, lean into that sense of knowing, and make the leap.”
“Even just taking a week off, or quitting for a month and living on savings, do it. You can do it right now. It can be one trip, one walk, meeting one person who changes your perspective, and remaining open to what will come your way, no matter [your struggles]. You don’t have to upend your entire life. Just take one step.”
What’s Next?
Switzer’s seasonal job continues through November.
After that, who knows? She trusts that life will unfold as it is meant to.
“I am planning on focusing on other jobs, but really, I’m a writer and a poet,” Switzer said. “And most recently, I was gifted an 18th-century desk by a then-stranger and now friend who wanted the desk to go to someone who would write with the same passion that they once did,” she said. “The only stipulation was that when I am through with the desk, it will continue its journey as a home for another writer.”
She mused again as the interview drew to a close, “Nothing in my life is a coincidence.”
About Patch People
Patch People is a recurring feature telling the stories of readers, including their interests, passions, challenges, triumphs and seminal moments that resulted in profound change, with a goal of making us all feel a bit more connected. Or, you may want to talk about something entirely different, and that’s OK, too. Readers can submit their stories through this form or by email to beth.dalbey@patch.com.