What a whirlwind these past 3 months have been. There have been a lot of positives and negatives during my experience in the desert, but overall I have grown, learned, and am now off in a new direction in my life. I’d like to thank Dr. Skogen, Rebecca, and everyone else in the CLM program who have made this opportunity possible and works so hard for such a noble cause. Meeting the other interns in other field offices during the Chicago training makes me feel optimistic that we have some passionate and conscious people who will step into government offices and continue to protect our public lands and the plants and animals which call this vast western wilderness home. Cheers to all the interns and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Now to wrap up my time in the Mojave.

The desert gives you a lot of time to think. There’s few people, noise, cars, and even animals (during the day at least) besides the chirp of the lizards at mid-day from under the creosote bushes. There is beauty and peace in being able to access such isolated areas and I take pleasure in knowing that these kinds of places still exist. On one of my last days I had grabbed a few flowers from an apricot mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) and paused for a few second to admire some butterflies when suddenly a hummingbird came out of nowhere and started drinking nectar from the flowers in my hands, hovered in front of my face and cocked his head, probably thinking what an odd looking plant I was, and flew off. There are some magical moments in the desert, and while not in such geological marvelous places like Arches in Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, the Mojave is still a true wilderness.

But it’s a tough place to live if you’re a social animal, and as Abbey said the only thing better than solitude is society. Needles doesn’t have much of a sense of community, or at least I couldn’t find one. The lack of people (like-minded rather) was the toughest challenge for me to overcome, and not the 115 degree days. Without having other people to hang out with was a struggle so I had to find other ways to occupy my free time. But at the end of a day in the Mojave sun, it was hard to muster up the energy to do anything outside, so I spent a lot of time reading and cooking. By taking the time to slow down, and really think about myself, my emotions, was a very contemplative and necessary time especially right after finishing college.

But being in such a desolate area certainly has its joys. One of the best feelings about when you’re so far from civilization and stop to realize you’re in a location where you can hear no planes, cars, construction, etc. and it fills you with a child-like excitement. I’d say that this experience mostly allowed me to learn about myself, and while I had to end my internship early, without having gone through such a challenging internship I wouldn’t be as content now with where I currently am working. Each new experience places a different lens in how we perceive the world and when we look at our lives in that light it allows us to accept each new challenge and question how it has changed ourselves and how we can learn and progress.

~Dean