From the Editor - September 2016
|
As another fall season approaches, I can’t help but think of being outdoors: going on hikes, watching the leaves turn colors, and eagerly anticipating cooler temperatures. This has always been the time of year that fondly reminds me of my geology field trips and just simply getting outside to explore the world, getting lost in the wilderness, and feeling like I was one with nature – the key reasons I fell in love with geoscience in the first place. |
In particular, it was the smells. They say smells trigger memories – but I also say that memories can trigger those smells. As I trudged through some of my old trip photos – I could actually remember how those places smelled! The various aromas of decaying leaves, wet rocks in a creek bed, the earth under my fingernails from digging out those rocks, and dried mud on my hiking boots after a day in the field. This was my inspiration for dropping my engineering degree path to pursue environmental geology.
My first real geology field trip was a fossil hunt somewhere in Minnesota not too far from my university. I had spent most of the day going off and jumping rock to rock - pretty much because no one was finding anything other than miniature brachiopods. The class was getting ready to leave the site and I just happened to turn over some flat rock...and there it was! A cephalopod in all its two-inch glory! It wasn’t complete, but in my mind, this was the most exhilarating thing to happen to anyone that day! No one else had found anything like it!
As I carefully handed it to my professor (who was already skeptical I had found something interesting and also thought I was the class clown), it swiftly broke in her hand. Let’s just say, I shed a few tears that day and to this day blame her for the fact it isn’t worth anything. However, I just super-glued that sucker back together; I became a geologist that day after all!
In March 1998, I took a two-week trip through New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah with a friend, and still have a jacket I use to this day because it still smells like the campground where I stayed at the bottom of Zion National Park. On that same trip, I was also fortunate to get to hike the Sand Dunes of New Mexico and Bryce Canyon; however, my ultimate goal was to hike the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I had no idea that my experience on that first encounter with the mighty Colorado River would forever change me. I was taught faith by my family, I was taught evolution by my mentors, but it was in that exquisite place that I experienced true spirituality. I continued to hiked the GC alone (backcountry and all) subsequently for three more years after that initial visit. I don’t remember why I stopped.
For one reason or another, imperceptible to me as I have made one small decision after another, my original life “scope of work” morphed. I never dreamed I would wind up working in the
Finally made it to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, March 1998.
petroleum industry or working behind a computer for a majority of my day. I was supposed to save the world (environmentally- speaking), take a ride on a space shuttle, or discover another amazing new fossil on one of my incredible hikes!
As some of you might relate, I was laid off last year for a few months, and during that time did some self-reflection. Should I stay in this industry or should I simply reinvent myself altogether? I discovered that it doesn’t really matter to me where I work but rather why I was no longer living the experience. I miss the pure awesomeness of the tangible earth and its formation. I miss feeling invigorated after a day hike in the great outdoors. I miss the adventure. I miss the smells.
So, my mission this year is to get back out there and to inspire you to do the same! I will pry my kids out of their indoor Pokémon trances and make them a little uncomfortable. I vow to escape the electronics, to inhale the great outdoors, and to become inspired to keep living the geologic experiences.
I am looking forward to more family-oriented HGS field trip offerings coming up in October like Earth Science Week and its free family field trip day or the “Take the Kids to the Outcrop” weekend event. I hope to plan other geologically-focused family outings this year, and I hope to share some of those local discoveries and experiences with you.
So, if you also feel you are lacking some form of geologic inspiration, I invite you to start the new HGS year with an open mind and a wide-brimmed hat; to pull out those old hiking boots and venture outside to just breathe it all in. Oh, and don’t forget to smell it.