Life in These United States

I've always tended to be a hands-in-many-honey-pots kind of girl. There can be really cool and unexpected cross-over between two seemingly unrelated activities. Recently, for example, I learned a little bit about dinosaurs from kid's book during the course of a normal day nannying for my nephews. Later that same week I was able to casually contribute a little something into a conversation that just happened to lean towards ancient aquatic ancestors. ("Oh, like the diplosaurus. Ha ha, how do I know? It's just a little something I picked up.")

I wear many hats lately. I have been interning at an aquarium-based startup company focused on sustainability and poverty alleviation in rainforest communities. I nanny for my sister and the two cutest nephews known to man. I also freelance write for my hometown paper, reporting on all the hard-hitting kind of news that can be written from two and a half hours across the state. Life is just more interesting this way.

But being interdisciplinary in the "real world" can lead to some potentially embarrassing situations if one is not paying as careful attention as one probably should. Like, for example, (hypothetically) walking into a meeting with one's boss with a sticker of Mater, the tow truck from the movie Cars, affixed to the back of one's hair. For many, this situation might pose a problem. For me, I put the sticker in my pocket and carried on with the conversation. These things happen. Later on, I wondered if my nephews had purposefully placed that sticker in my hair. I thought over how long it might have been there. And I toyed briefly with the idea of showering more often. (But then, what would I have to write about in my blog?)

The variety in jobs does help to pay my rent check, as well as keep my spirits high. Whenever I have a poor performance day, say writing grants or researching potential donors, I can just head to my nephew's house, where I get commended for taking little bites at the dinner table. "Yay! You did it, Auntie Emma!" said Cole today, clapping his hands and then pointing to the strawberry in my hand that I had, successfully, taken a bite from.

I did it. It's little motivations like these in life that keep me going.

I also like to think back to where I was a year ago, in college, writing "thought papers" on pressing and critical issues affecting the modern world, so pressing and critical that they currently reside in the back of a closet at my parent's house. I did some important work, people. If someone had asked me to spend 10 hours researching a topic that would culminate in a page and a half article, dollars to donuts this girl wouldn't have even gotten past the first wikipedia search before my attention had wandered. 10 hours of interviews and research and writing for a total of 700 paltry words, are you joking? But now, when there is even a slight monetary incentive, ain't nobody gonna stop me. And this besides the sheer satisfaction I get by just seeing my name in print, published. It's pure vanity, but it helps to pay the bills as well as pave the way for a future being able to continue pursuing more interdisciplinary lines of work. Lines of work that hopefully involve less stickers in unconventional places. I'm not saying none, I'm just saying less.