I’ve finished working at the Eagle Lake field office in Susanville, California. A lot of things have changed since I started in June. I cut my hair, for one. But more importantly, I’ve grown a lot as a person. Working here has been my first experience living away from home and completely supporting myself, and it’s my first time working an actual job at an actual workplace. All of my other jobs have been centered around the fact that I was a student working for my own or other universities. As a human adult working in a professional capacity with other human adults, I’ve had to learn to tone down how silly and obnoxious I can be sometimes because it’s not conducive to getting work done. I’m glad I got to learn this special and important lesson as an intern, because interns are allowed to be silly and mess up sometimes (right?).

Being away from home has also shown me how much I value my family and friends there. In my past experiences I either haven’t been farther than a few hours from my home base or I wasn’t gone for very long. I don’t mind being far from home, but I do appreciate my friends and family more now.

As for skills I’ve gained, I’m a lot more confident in my ability to learn and recognize an abundance of plants. I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing the plants of our field office, and I think I’ve gotten pretty good at looking for special status plants as well. I’ve learned how to navigate the treacherous backroads that are made mostly of lava rock and misery, and I’ve learned how to use a GPS. Working with three other interns has sharpened my group work skills (I hope they agree).

One learning experience in particular stands out to me: We were driving in the Skedaddle Mountains, and it was my first time driving in the backcountry with the jeep. I’m not sure if the Skedaddles were the best place to learn, seeing as the road was mostly a mountainside full of rocks and other treacherous obstacles, and I bottomed out a few times. But I quickly gained sharper eyes to detect snags in the road.

My fellow interns are fun fun people. We’ve had a blast in the field, joking with each other and sharing lots of laughs. I’ll treasure the memories we’ve made because honestly, we’re hilarious. Also our mentor, Valda, is the best! She’s so fun and helpful, I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.

These past few weeks we’ve been working in the office for the most part, which has been almost entirely unpleasant. Because of this, I know that I’m not cut out for the windowless cubicle life, at least not yet. Sometimes after being in the office I’m more fatigued than when we’ve been out hiking all day! I used to think I’d be able to do any job as long as it was something I believed in, even if it meant working in a cubicle, but goodness gracious I don’t think I can do it.

After this, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do. I love scientific research and I’m planning on going to graduate school, but not until 2017 at least. Until then, I want to experience as many places and fields of work as possible. I’ve got my eye on urban sustainability currently, so I’m hoping to scare up some sort of internship with the city planner’s office when I go back home. We’ll see how that goes~!

I’ll miss this job every day, though. The people are great, but the work is even greater. The beautiful places I’ve been to and experiences I’ve had are irreplaceable, and I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity.