Just Figuring It All Out Really

A quick shot from the bridge. 

As my senior year of college inches closer and closer, I become increasingly preoccupied with next steps-- When do I take the GRE? Should I wait a year or five for grad school? What part of the country (or world) do I want to make my home post-graduation? Then there's the dreaded existentials, fraught with self-doubt. For example: Will an environmental studies degree qualify me for a job I'd want? Am I cut out for a 9-5? Do I even know myself well enough to pick a career at all?

With graduation on the horizon and the number of middle-aged+ relatives regularly asking for my future plans increasing every day, it seems to me that while I know what I love to do, I don't yet understand unequivocally what I love enough to step confidently forward in any particular direction. Indeed, the hardest part of college, and one of the biggest sources of self-doubt in my life, was the selection of my major. Sure I love the environment, but do I love it more than any of the other things I care about? More than Women's Rights? More than Human Rights? More than World Peace? Honestly, I'm still not sure.

Golden hour on the Red Cedar Trail. 

But in the internal conversation I'm perpetually having with myself, I've identified one common thread: human beings. I care very deeply for people--which, ironically, hasn't always translated (and still doesn't always) into a love of human interaction--not in the cliché "I'm friends with everyone," but in a way that propels me to speak out against injustice, and seek out opportunities to learn more about the ways human beings mistreat one another. One of the biggest reasons I decided to pursue environmental studies and not environmental science (other than avoiding taking more calculus than is absolutely necessary) is because I am much more interested in how denigrated environments disproportionately affect vulnerable populations and the broader environmental justice movement than I am in pure environmental science.

Blue skies over the Red Cedar.

During the Fall Semester of 2017, I got the opportunity to conduct original research (of both the qualitative and quantitative variety) with a group of my peers, and I fell in love with qualitative research methods. I love using interviewing as a tool to better understand individual narrative and to more deeply conceptualize individual choice and experience, which is a big part of the reason I decided to come to the Lakes REU. In this way, I am hoping to learn more about qualitative research methods as a way to gather, collect, and understand individual behavior in an effort to solve some of society's most complex environmental issues. And while I can't promise that this is my life's calling, I know I'll enjoy myself along the way. As always, here's my week in pictures. Thanks for reading!