Things are Lookin' Up

Trafton B.

March 23, 2010 - 12:01 PM

After a belated beginning to my break week, I seem to have struck a mine a good fortune to counterbalance my recent tribulations.

I finally arrived home in the Bay Area on Saturday night - a mere twenty-nine hours after my Friday flight would have landed. Thankfully, my buddy, Andrew, had a final exam late in the week as well as an extra seat in his car.

So, as per usual, my parents and I went out to downtown San Mateo for dinner at Sushi Sam's. Sunday was a day of rest and acclimation, which I needed pretty badly considering that I had two big interviews for summer internships.

Yesterday, I met with Jordan and Vickie at the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association (SPUR). SPUR is well known around the Bay Area for their progressive thinking in the world of community and urban planning. To be completely honest, I wouldn't care if I my job was typing notes and taking coffee orders. I just want to be somewhere in that office so I can soak up their knowledge. And if working there is anything like my interview, then I'm sold.

We started by talking about possible opportunities during the summer as a front desk ambassador, and possible maintaining a blog. (Thanks UO Annual Giving, you've given me a marketable asset.) But then the conversation slowly moved into baseball road tripping and campus tour guiding. We tried very hard to stay on topic, but personally I didn't mind. It was the most fun I've had during an interview.

Today, I just left from another informational interview with Manav and Angie at the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, or just Stewardship Council for short. The organization was established in 2004 to protect and enhance over 140,000 acres watershed and forested land owned by PG&E. However, they also have a separate but related initiative that invests in youth programs than focuses on enhancing childhood development through environmental stewardship. My career goals more closely align with the land management side of the organization, but my theory is that we're all working on the same project. And at this point I don't really care which side of the equation I'm on as long as I'm doing something. 

It was incredibly refreshing to walk out of both of those interviews knowing that there are like-minded people out there. Also, I treated these interviews as a test of what I've learned in the past year of environmental studies and public policy courses. I'm proud to report that Oregon has prepared me very well. I feel confident that there will have somewhere to go after graduation.

Thanks, UO.

The other bit of good news I received was a call from the Eugene Police Department saying they found my stolen bag! I have no idea where they found it or how they found it yet, but at least I know it's in safe hands now. They didn't see my wallet inside, understandably, and I'm betting that my hoagie won't return either, although I didn't ask them. I should be able to pick it up and find out for myself next Monday.

The world has a funny way of working things out sometimes. I'm just relieved to see the scale is beginning to tilt back in my favor. Let's hope the good fortune continues as my professors post grades for last quarter.