Retro Rewind: How Did I Get Here?
This story starts in a magical place called The 90s when an optimistic, strong-willed 19-year-old packed up her belongings, her beloved Boston Terrier, and moved to Bloomington to complete her degree in Entrepreneurship.
I got lost riding my bike to my very first class in the basement of the Rec Center and showed up dumping sweat. I felt defeated after my first day and even worse as the semester went on. The School of Business was NOT my thing, and I could tell those in my classes were not my people (you know, the ones you’re told you’ll find when you leave home for college). So, I rounded out my first year at Indiana University, still staying the course with business as my major, and tried to fulfill my personal interests in subject matter through books.
Sidebar: To set the stage a bit better, this was the early 2000s, and while home internet was readily available on our personal computer (PC), it wasn’t as robust as we now regularly take for granted. I was carrying a Nokia 5120 phone, which was wildly cool because I could play ‘Snake’ on it.
Having always loved animals, I was drawn to a book titled Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees, a remarkable story of Roger Fouts’ journey in human–chimpanzee communications through sign language.
I finished the book quickly, perched myself in front of my pressboard corner desk that held my PC, and opened my favorite search engine, askjeeves.com. I quickly located the website dedicated to this book and Fouts. I emailed the general information address on the page to ask how to get into the field of human-chimpanzee conversation! I was shocked when I received an email back directly from the AUTHOR! Feeling I’d won the World Wide Web, I eagerly absorbed Mr. Fouts’ words advising me to change my major to anthropology and take two semesters of sign language. Following a year of sign, I was encouraged to enlist in a summer internship at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute on the campus of Central Washington University.
Sadly, I didn’t get the opportunity to attend. As it turned out, I was not at all interested in Anthropology (I was mostly just interested in finding out what secrets chimps held!). I did, however, sign up for a course in Wildlife Management that piqued my interest, and, as luck would have it, an engaging professor who encouraged me to enroll in other courses in Environmental Management.
I joined my peers at the (then) School of Public and Environmental Affairs and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management in 2004, when AOL Instant Messenger still existed but everyone preferred Yahoo Messenger because Chat Rooms, DUH.
With the ink on my diploma barely dry, I started an “intermittentship” (their word, not mine) at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as a Fisheries Aide. The good people at the State quickly realized I knew how to use the interwebs, so I was tasked with writing facts sheets on aquatic invasive species to publish on their website. After nearly a year with the DNR, my time was up, and I was forced into finding a real long-term position and start officially adulting.
*me circa 2007 on a job site in Plymouth, Indiana; before Carhartt had a women’s line (but I still wear this gem)
Sitting on the laminate flooring of my first home, I cried while reading my first rejection letter from a private environmental consulting company. I had my degree but no experience. Like every time before when my heart hurt, I called my parents (landline because it was 2006). My dad answered and, just like every time before, he had a solution. Through my father’s professional network, I was granted an interview with another environmental consultant in Indianapolis for a field position doing Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I ESAs), soil surveys, and indoor air quality assessments. My manager would later tell me that he hired me because I went to IU (his alma mater), and I had a great personality that he knew would fit in with his team.
While I am no longer with that company or in the field, I’m grateful every day that he gave me a chance to shine so that 11 years later, I could find my way to Cornerstone in a role supporting clients with EHS and sustainability goals.
