This week I had a grand realization ultimately leading me to entirely rethink my career path, and that’s only ONE of the many events over the past 7 days that has caused me to be a late poster yet again (apologies!)

What was this realization you ask? Well, I’ve decided I simply cannot sit at a desk for eight hours a day unless I’m doing something creative. Quite frankly I find myself going a bit stir crazy and questioning why I studied the social sciences to begin with. After really thinking about it I came to accept that although I may not go in the exact direction I expected to go with my degree, I don’t regret the field I studied at all. Knowing all that I do about the environment, agriculture, and society as a whole has very much shaped me as a person. I did go vegan so if anything it’s drastically changed my eating habits and I’ll mark that as a plus. I love food more than most things and my degree has only helped grow that love.

I came to this conclusion after working on the website for the King Tides Photo Initiative. And this may sound odd but I actually LOVED it. Let me explain.

http://www.oregonkingtides.net/

Being given the opportunity to redesign the oregonkingtides.net website confirmed that graphic design was something I need to allow myself to continue exploring after this internship. Most days I find being in an office very hard, but when I’m working on something creative I get lost in it. I knew I would probably go back to school at some point but just didn’t know what for. I am now enrolling in a few graphic design courses back home and hope to eventually find a career that ties everything together for me.

The content of the website is still a work in progress but it has definitely improved! I now have a renewed excitement and hope to take this project to a new level in the next 5 weeks.

Meetings and Mexican Food

On Wednesday the Newport office and myself (total of 4) hopped in the car to attend the Coastal Management Program’s monthly staff meeting in Salem. Most of the meeting was focused on picking a new logo for the program (which I obviously truly enjoyed) but I did have the chance to show everyone the new look to the website.

I also learned of a new application through ArcGIS called Survey123 that will help us collect the King Tides’ photos in a much more efficient and organized manner this year. After only one YouTube tutorial I was able to set up a mock collection form that we’ll be testing out this week. Keep an eye out for the next blog because I might as for y’all to try it!

On the way home we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat at a little burrito place. It was one of the first opportunities I had to chat with Matt and Dave, the two older men who work in my office, and I really enjoyed getting to know them

NANOOS

On Thursday Meg and I attended a workshop at the community college on NANOOS – the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems. Although I didn’t have much to offer to the conversation it was really interesting to learn about the software and what it could do. To my understanding everyone from biologists to fisherman use it to check water temperatures, buoy locations, tsunami danger zones and more. The learning curve seems steep but once one understands how to utilize all the information it really is a goldmine.

Inked

Once again I headed up to Portland for the weekend (that’s 3 out of 4 weekends now) to see some of my best friends from college and to FINALLY get my tattoo! I had been planning this for a while and looking forward to it since I arrived in Oregon. I really wanted to represent womanly strength.

I think the relationship between the moon and the ocean exhibit the same kind of quiet power women often do in the world. At the same time the ocean can be intense and mysterious as all of us women are in some way or another. The moon is also representative of my mother, we both feel very connected to it, and her being a marine biologist makes the whole beach theme even more significant. As exhausting as it was to sit for 5 hours straight being poked by a needle I am absolutely over the moon (pun intended) about it and excited for when I can wear real pants again.

Cheers to week 4 and art in all forms.