Something amazing happened today when I got home from Science Pub (it combines innovative science talks and beer, yes Portland is amazing)...I got a package from my old research leader, and friend, Jake. Me and another great friend of mine, Danielle, helped Jake with his Masters Project research for a disjointed 3-5 month period. He was working with Axolotls, aka funny looking salamanders, and the result of adding varying amounts of the hormone BPA, bisphenol A, to their tanks. Anyways, it was tedious and he put several years of work into it. So finally, after years of frustrating work and research, and several restarts, he was published and earned his Master's Degree!!!
Opening the package was especially exciting for me, especially since I was there from the VERY beginning of his research, back when we were still trying to set up the tanks and arrange the best set-up for his creatures. He was great to work with and I am so excited he finally has his hard work and dedication in solid, print form. Beyond excited actually.
But the idea of having something concrete with your OWN name on it, well it's kind of foreign. So much of our communication is via computer and phone these days. I think that's why the physical published work of Jake's gave me such an intense emotional thrill. He put me and Danielle's names in the acknowledgment page along with a generous thank you. When else in life do you get to see your name printed in an actual book!?!?! I think the answer is, rarely. If I lost my computer, or for some reason the memory was wiped, 95% of all my Europe pictures would be lost, along with all my college essays, emails, papers, etc...same with my phone, except it would be all my precious Instagram brunch pics. So much communication is over the internet and iPhones (or whatever phone people use who don't have the iPhone...I think those people exist), it's just nice to see something come to me in print, and know it will continue to exist in this definite form, forever.
On this same note of encapsulating our experiences and time, a new goal of mine is to take more photos. I wish I was a good photographer like my dad, or had a fancy camera, but I suppose I'll have to make due with my digital Sony. I was thinking the other day, that I had literally only a couple pictures of my life and friends from here in Portland. I made a conscious effort in London because I knew my time there was indefinite, but there seems to be no urgency nowadays. It's my home, it's not going anywhere. But my experiences are changing and my life has already altered so greatly from when I first moved here just over a year ago. I need to be documenting my life and friends here; it feels so special to me, I want to remember it years from now as I see and feel it now. So the next post I make I will make a collage of pictures of just some of the very unique and special people here in Portland that make my life here a home. Because there are many, and I love them oh so much <3
Be noticed, be concrete.
Love Liz
No comments:
Post a Comment