Thursday, August 16, 2012

Final day



The sixth day of the trip began in the same manner that the others had; with nine young minds clammering to plunge themselves into the scientific world. We took off into the wetlands for three hours before lunch, performing the tasks that are rapidly becoming routine. I was in the fish squadron, and our traps yielded many specimens that would later be analyzed in the lab, another aspect of the trip that is steadily becoming common knowledge for the nine participants. Overall, the day went very well, and I look forward to finishing the trip in an emphatic fashion.
But, before I end this little passage, I would like to take this chance to say something I believe to be important. As this trip comes to a close, I am beginning to reflect on what it has meant for me, and for the eight good friends I’ve gained on this journey. When you think about it, you should realize how incredibly special this trip has been. We have all had an incredible opportunity to journey to an unknown environment, with a different climate, different people, and most importantly, new experiences. All nine participants landed in Manitoba knowing that Environmental science was something they were interested in. At that point, many of us may have believed that we could end up in this field. I know I did. But, no matter how set you may be on your future career, no matter how convinced you are that something is your passion, there always seems to be a little bit of doubt, gnawing there at the back of your mind. There was for me, made worse by my undetermined age of seventeen, when you’re not quite boy, not quite a man. That doubt had been plaguing me for months, and when I showed up here at the CNSC, I was determined to find out if that doubt had a basis in truth, or if it was merely a figment of my imagination. Do to this goal, I plunged myself into the tasks that were given to us by our coordinators, and accrued actual experience doing the types of things that I believed I want to do in the future. I got to speak to real live biologists, live the way many environmental scientists do, and get an overall understanding, or “better feeling” for the field itself. This experience was exactly what I needed and I can now say quite confidently that I was right. I DO want to go into environmental science; I do want to be involved with the environment, and the greatest part about that is that it’s not because I can get rich in the field, or become famous, it’s because I know I can do something I love and make a difference, that is not something a lot of people get to say.

I want to thank the CNSC, Earthwatch, and all the people who made this trip possible. It has been a great experience and it has had and will continue to have a very tangible impact on my life.

No comments:

Post a Comment