Why am I doing this?

I thought it might be valuable for me to work out why and how I ended up interested in forest plans and collaboration. It is a not-too-windy road, but I wanted to get it down somewhere for two reasons. First, I just wanted to work it out myself. Second, it might be a valuable bit on information for grant applications and proposals, a "why this" answer for job interviews down the line. We asked a number of faculty position applicants why and how they ended up studying what they did. If I know the answer clearly it might improve my chances later on. Who knows?

It is strange that growing up in Southern California, deep in the middle of LA County, I would have a love of the outdoors.I can attribute that to my parents. We were frequent campers and hikers even while living in a very urban setting. I can distinctly remember my first backpacking adventure in the Sierras. I was around 9 years old. We hiked up to a lake and caught our dinner. There is still a part of me that always craves rainbow trout cooked in a skillet over a single burner stove. Nothing could ever possibly taste so good.

I was a Tiger, Cub and then Boy Scout. It didn't seem to matter to me that I was these things, but I did gain a lot of skills in orienteering, backpacking, canoes, pioneering (this one was the knot tying merit badge) as well as first aid before I was in Junior High. It was just what I did in my free time and it didn't really matter whether I did it or not. I just could do these things and was regularly exposed to the wilderness.

Then we moved to the mountains of Arizona. I was not a big fan of leaving the city, though at the time I didn't realize the opportunity I had. Rather than driving hours to get to the forest I only had to cross the street. There were thousands of uninterrupted acres of forest right behind my house. I biked to school on a path that  now would be considered amazing single-track trail. My new scout troop hiked the grand canyon every few months. Still, it was just what I did, not something I sought out or ever considered to be a job or career.

I became an Eagle Scout at the last possible minute after five years as the next to highest rank. It didn't interest me terribly and I knew I had time. I went to college for physics and astronomy, looking far away from the forest I lived in. I ended up with a degree in Political Science because policy and government interested me more than particles and stars. And that made me a great waiter. Then I found out I could get a job working in the forests I used to hike in, and joined a conservation corps. This was my first inkling that I might be able to combine what was always an important, yet regularly dismissed, part of my life with a career.