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Hurry Up and Wait
The 48 hours of work that began Sunday morning were so intense that I was grateful in retrospect for the previous calm days of preparation.
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Learning to Speak
I couldn’t believe it was me, but there I was, talking at American Chemical Society (ACS) session on Modern Analytical Approaches for the Characterization of Natural Organic Matter in the Environment.
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Presentation Adrenaline or, That’s a Charming Polygon! Here, Look at Mine
The night before my poster at the American Geophysical Union meeting, I barely slept. I had expected nerves and excitement, but I surprised myself with the level of anticipation I felt as I tossed and drifted in the hotel bed.
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Preparing for the Ball
In the short term, I will need to communicate clearly at AGU when I present my poster in December. I will need to not only explain the research I did, but also answer questions from scientists who know far more about this field than I do. In some ways, it feels as though I am preparing for a debutante ball--an entrance into the scientific society that I wish to be a part of.
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These Questions Remain
In the aftermath of our symposium presentations at the Northeast Science Station, I thought about what further analyses to run on the data I collected in the tundra. I have found a few exciting initial patterns, but I have to work much harder to understand my more complicated measurements. I have a nagging question. How does knowing what I now know help?
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Voyage South
I knew I did not want to leave the tundra. As I stood with friends on the cliff next to the sand spit where the barge was parked, I leaned into the wind from the south. Something was welling up inside me. At the time, it came out as song—all five of us were belting as we watched dark blue storm clouds pierced with lightening in the northern sky and bronze sunlight dancing on the Kolyma River water to the south.
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Hunting for Plans and UV light
I thought I knew what I wanted to study, and how to do it. I needed water—a stream that ran from headwaters down through beaded pools and into an outlet. There were many of them around Cherskiy, but there were none near our mooring on the Kolyma River.
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Beginnings
But this was different. Partly from waking up just in time, partly from the luck of suddenly clear skies. Mostly because I'm not just sightseeing now. I'm on my way to a place where I get to look for answers, to try to understand a piece of the Arctic.
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Understanding the Invisible
I do not know what I will want to investigate when I arrive in Siberia. I have been told by students that have gone in the past that that is ok--my ideas will change when I stand on the uneven ground and experience the place for the first time. But I am excited that, in preparation for the trip, I have been able to understand my own thinking better, and I look forward to trying to understand something invisible.
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