pendraggin (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} pendraggin) wrote,@ 2007-12-31 23:16:00 |
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Reflections in the eddies
I bid farewell to 2007. It was an exciting year of seemingly perpetual movement. The year began with an eye-popping fireworks display over Sydney Harbor in Australia (followed by a 34-hour long January 1st) and ended with dozing off on an unattractive couch in Connecticut. Still, I really can't complain. This was the first year that has not involved schooling of some sort, although it was not devoid of education. I held four different jobs, taking me to Costa Rica, Wisconsin, Ithaca, and Connecticut. The year has included two trips to Ann Arbor, one to Chicago, and a few passes through Delaware and New York City.
Adaptability has been key, as my living arrangements have varied from a house with no furniture to an entire house packed with the owners' stuff to personal space limited to a lower bunk. I have worked for different faces of conservation: the idealist who dislikes mist-netting because it stresses the birds, the forester who wants to be responsible while making a buck, the game manager who wants to conserve waterfowl so they can be shot. I have learned valuable skills such as stuffing hatchling sea turtles into a duct tape sleeve, picking out the chip note of a field sparrow, gaging where a tree branch becomes three inches wide, and keeping superglue off a duck's back.
In this year I formed close friendships that faded away once the field season ended, and went to odd lengths to keep in touch with established comrades. I found new friends in Ithaca by virtue of taking control of Ring of Steel. WooT for sword folks. I am so pleased we had so many rank advancements this semester (including ROSI's first senior scholar, heehee). Hormones suffered injury, went dormant quite happily, and reactivated without any instruction from higher mental processes. Fascinating little things, but clearly not trustworthy.
So here comes the new year, an arbitrary opportunity for change and renewal. Odd to have it when most things are dead or inactive. Do I have regrets? One for sure, but hopefully I have been forgiven for that. Do I have a plan? Right now my work keeps me quite occupied... sometimes I think job satisfaction is highest when I have nothing around to distract me from work. I believe this year will involving making some decisions, namely the grad school question. Will it give me direction to launch a *gasp* permanent career? Will it feel like a tech position, just two years long? Where the frell do I go? What can I do to aid the fight for natural world? Et cetera, et cetera. Still, 2007 was a thumbs-up year for me. *raises glass* Cheers to 2008.
I bid farewell to 2007. It was an exciting year of seemingly perpetual movement. The year began with an eye-popping fireworks display over Sydney Harbor in Australia (followed by a 34-hour long January 1st) and ended with dozing off on an unattractive couch in Connecticut. Still, I really can't complain. This was the first year that has not involved schooling of some sort, although it was not devoid of education. I held four different jobs, taking me to Costa Rica, Wisconsin, Ithaca, and Connecticut. The year has included two trips to Ann Arbor, one to Chicago, and a few passes through Delaware and New York City.
Adaptability has been key, as my living arrangements have varied from a house with no furniture to an entire house packed with the owners' stuff to personal space limited to a lower bunk. I have worked for different faces of conservation: the idealist who dislikes mist-netting because it stresses the birds, the forester who wants to be responsible while making a buck, the game manager who wants to conserve waterfowl so they can be shot. I have learned valuable skills such as stuffing hatchling sea turtles into a duct tape sleeve, picking out the chip note of a field sparrow, gaging where a tree branch becomes three inches wide, and keeping superglue off a duck's back.
In this year I formed close friendships that faded away once the field season ended, and went to odd lengths to keep in touch with established comrades. I found new friends in Ithaca by virtue of taking control of Ring of Steel. WooT for sword folks. I am so pleased we had so many rank advancements this semester (including ROSI's first senior scholar, heehee). Hormones suffered injury, went dormant quite happily, and reactivated without any instruction from higher mental processes. Fascinating little things, but clearly not trustworthy.
So here comes the new year, an arbitrary opportunity for change and renewal. Odd to have it when most things are dead or inactive. Do I have regrets? One for sure, but hopefully I have been forgiven for that. Do I have a plan? Right now my work keeps me quite occupied... sometimes I think job satisfaction is highest when I have nothing around to distract me from work. I believe this year will involving making some decisions, namely the grad school question. Will it give me direction to launch a *gasp* permanent career? Will it feel like a tech position, just two years long? Where the frell do I go? What can I do to aid the fight for natural world? Et cetera, et cetera. Still, 2007 was a thumbs-up year for me. *raises glass* Cheers to 2008.
