First Impressions

One of my first views of Lake Menomin at one of the overlooks.

When I arrived in Menomonie a week ago, I wasn’t sure what to expect. First of all, I’d never been to the Midwest before. Most of what I knew came from A Prairie Home Companion and reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder book Little House in the Big Woods (which it to say, not much). I didn’t know how to begin pronouncing Menomonie and had never had fried cheese curds or rhubarb pie—would a small town girl from North Carolina fit in? I was also a little unsure of how qualified I was to work on a biology research project. My academic path has been anything but traditional, and for most of my college career I hadn’t felt totally at home in any one major. Instead, I’d dabbled a little in horticulture, art, urban planning, and geography. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be experienced enough in any one area to make a useful contribution to any research project. On top of that, I was a bit nervous about meeting so many new people from all over the country.

Listening to the town band during our first Tuesday night concert (aka Pie Night!).

             I didn’t need to worry. In the short amount of time I’ve been here, I’ve met an amazing, eclectic, accepting group of people. Between Pie Tuesday, touring a cattle farm, studying at a cat-fé, and talking endlessly about food, our little group has become a community.  My concerns about not fitting in a single discipline have dropped away, too. The LAKES mentors embrace how disciplines overlap in real life, and acknowledge how complicated it is to chip away at a problem like Lake Menomin’s. The solution isn’t going to be a single answer but more of a journey to something better than before. Eutrophication isn’t just an issue of policy or environmental biology. It’s embedded in the community it impacts, with all the social, geographic, political, and biological factors that shape it. It makes sense then, that the LAKES team brings so many different backgrounds and perspectives to the table. In such a welcoming atmosphere, I feel a little more comfortable throwing out new ideas and being more creative in my research. I already have a feeling that I’m going to learn so much this summer.

Me, Esther, and Liz on a group hike at Devil's Punch Bowl this weekend.

                Also, in case you are wondering, I have now had rhubarb pie and fried cheese curds and I'm not looking back! J