Category Archives: About Me

MU Field School Fall 2011

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This semester, I had an archaeological field school at the site of one of the first colonizations in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We learned basic field procedures as well as lab procedures for processing artifacts (we are still working in the lab currently). In the unit I worked on, we mostly found broken glass, nails and ceramic fragments. I am working on my 15 page paper/interpretation of my unit. Here are some photos from the site:





I am very happy that I had this opportunity to dig however I don’t feel as though I’m as prepared as I ‘should’ be to go on an actual dig. Hopefully, I will be able to find a project to be a part of next summer to learn more and gain more experience in the field.
The job outlook for archaeology is slim to none with a bachelor’s degree, a field school, and no other experience. This reality has been the cause of my recent panic and nearly rash decision to join a technical school for dental assisting. Why dental assisting? It’s a 9 month program with job security. However, maybe it’s out of pride but I wouldn’t be content with pushing back completion of my bachelor’s degree once again in pursuit of something that I know isn’t what I WANT to do with my life.
So, I’m going to make it work. Somehow. Some way. There’s a list about a mile long of things that I know that I don’t want to do with my life and as time goes by, I discover more and more of the things that I DO want to do with my life. It’ll be interesting to see how they fall into place like a well played game of Tetris. Because I’m determined that they do.

Two More Years

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Though I vowed to put myself on the road for no less than three years when I first left Louisiana with the Donut People, I’ve come to find myself in PA finishing up my undergrad.

The Wanderlust beckons daily but I fight to keep my mind on track. Two more years, two more years….

This semester, I am taking my archaeologic field school. We are out in the field for six hours every Tuesday and Thursday. It’s an extremely interesting site we are on that could possibly be the oldest site of colonization in Lancaster County. After this semester, I will be qualified (enough) to participate in other digs. And that is exactly what I plan on/would like to do come summer 2012.

My other classes are astronomy, English, geography: resources and the environment, and Spanish II. Spanish I find most difficult. I studied French for quite some time in Louisiana. Switching to Spanish has been interesting, I’ll start a thought in Spanish and finish the sentence in French (unintentionally). J’ai veintidós años……wait, that’s not right.

So the idea is to study, study, study, dig, study, study, study, graduate in May 2013, dig, dig, dig(TRAVEL!).

Oh, and get married. :-D
July 2013

Patience is a virtue…a virtue is a good thing

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Patience and persistence will pay off. It is not worth my time to sit and dwell on the negative things and on all of the things that I don’t have, or all of the things I’m not doing rather.

My favorite quote from Wade at vagabondjourney.com, “If a man wakes up smiling, then he is as rich as any king and as vast as any kingdom. A deep, true and unprovoked smile is the most sought after thing on earth.”

I see the great big grand picture of what it is I want to do with my life, what I believe will make me happy but I forget, constantly, that it takes time to carve out a niche in this world. And it is often the journey towards the things we want that make it ultimately worthwhile.

I have no reason not to smile, for I am rich.

 

School is cool

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Walking around LSU today, the familiar foot paths, the giant oaks draping down to the ground, I felt a sense of nostalgia.
‘Maybe I could go back to school. Finish my degree, dig in the dirt a while…’
But I will not return to LSU. I loathe that place. They put all of their energy into athletics instead of academics.
I’ve really only got a year and a half, maybe two years left.
I feel like my brain is dormant as of late.
As of the past year truly.
I find that I am good at school, it’s easy, it’s a method.
And I enjoy learning.
And perhaps having a college degree wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
I love anthropology and history and geography.

But that means giving up the coffee roasting adventure, which I’m quite alright with. I don’t know, I always get this awful sinking feeling in my gut when I think about starting a coffee roasting business. And on the road none the less. Sure it’s eventually profitable but it’s not what I want to do.
I want to see and study the world and the people who live in it.
I’m more interested in the daily interactions between coffee planters and how their work affects their families than I am about buying that coffee, roasting it and selling to the masses to make a buck.
I still believe that knowledge for the sake of knowledge is something worth seeking. It may be impractical to pay for school for four years to get a degree which doesn’t necessarily qualify you for an outstanding paying job. But it brings me forward.

these thoughts keep me up at night

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I have a dream of traveling the world. My biggest fear is that I’m going to get stuck into something that I can’t escape and it’s going to force me to live my life stationary.
I’m supposed to start a coffee roasting business. It’s such an easy profitable thing for the world in which I live currently. Perhaps one day it will allow me to have the financial means of traveling but I am impatient. I have the itch again, the wanderlust is beckoning.
I’m sure this has something to do with being back in the place that I tried so desperately to leave behind.

I could just leave. I could just walk away from all of this and head in a new direction. Again I’m unsure of how to go about doing this. I look at jobs online, seasonal things but I don’t have the means to make the jump.

Truth be told, I’m rather enjoying my life as a rennie. I just don’t want to do the same circuit of festivals forever.

I’m only 21. I have time right??