Thanksgiving

So, its early in the morning and time to celebrate the best day in America. :0)

Today I'm thankful for my family, my friends and the awesome people that have helped me along in life. As I am gathering together all my information for grad school, I've realize how many people have helped me along the way and how lucky I am to have been given all the opportunties in my life. In the end, thanks.

Now, onto baking!

Applications

I have finally started putting together applications, working on my personal statements and thinking very seriously about my future in conservation (although, really, I'm always thinking very seriously about my future in conservation). Although its true, I am slowly realizing that writing "I think conservation is literally the coolest thing in the world" is not an acceptable personal statement. So here I go, talking about the value of material culture and the power of objects in history, including personal history. Also, include my experiences? And somehow how its the perfect combination of art and science? So many things, so few pages.

I have also started the final phase of my internship at Northwestern: report writing. It should be mentioned, maybe I have mentioned already, maybe not, that writing reports is the bread and butter of conservation. Treatment reports. Condition reports. Reports. REPORTS! Its not necessarily the most fun, especially since I am still learning (read: NOT GREAT), but it is arguably the most important. You have to take good notes, people. Forever and always. So my life is currently devoted to the computer screen and typing, either for my internship or my applications. YAY!

Hopefully, my next post will be about my new internship at the Field Museum, I'm working on textiles. It's super cool. Talk about that later.

Back to writing my personal statement. Summary: I love art! I love science! I love working with my hands! Trust me...I WANT THIS! Conservation is the coolest.

My First Presentation

This past week, Northwestern hosted a meeting of the CACG, the Chicago Area Conservation Group. The presentation was titled, "Creating Conservation Partnerships: How Education, Outreach and Digitization Initiatives Influence Conservation Treatment." I was part of it. I presented for about five minutes, not too bad, about my internship and how I worked on my respective treatments. I'll be presenting a longer version of this presentation at next month's Interns Talk, but this was my first introduction to the whole thang.

Let me start by saying I got SO nervous, my voice was shaking, and I literally ran out of breath at the end. It was scary. Beyond that, I don't think I said anything incriminating or politically incorrect. Sometimes, in conservation, if you use the wrong terminology it doesn't just look dumb, it looks bad. Its important to be clear and honest, because your choice of action if very important. Anyways, I was scared I'd mess up a word, and it'd suddenly sound like I was doing something terrible. Luckily, that didn't happen. Afterwards, I was able to speak with a few of the conservators at the Art Institute and some private conservators. It was definitely interesting speaking with them, and hearing about their professional experiences. 

So, it was alright. Not great. I got too nervous. But it's over. And I didn't say anything too bad. And I know that eventually, I'll get more comfortable talking about conservation treatments and such. Overall, it was a great time, beyond my nerves.