Unlike those of many of the other fantastic people on this website, my Senior Project was not long premeditated. It was, in fact, established about a week and a half after my advisor told me that I, in his words, “should be in more of a panic by now.” I knew that I was going to be staying in Chicago. I had plane tickets purchased and housing set up. The only thing I lacked was an actual project. So, in slightly more of a panic following that interaction, I sent a résumé to two departments of the Field Museum in Chicago; anthropology and paleontology. My neighbor, who worked there for several years during the formation of the Sue exhibit, wrote me a recommendation, and I sat in angst worthy of an eighth-grader until I got a reply. My neat-freak-ness for which everyone but my roommate mocks me extends to the state of my inbox, so that reply is now somewhere in the depths of my archived folder, but it consisted of something like:

Hello!

We would be glad to take on an intern in our vertebrate paleontology department. Please reply if that suits you.

Obviously, I replied.

What does a vertebrate paleontology internship entail, you might ask? Well, first off, it’s a chance for my four and a half years of Latin to prove relevant in life. Mostly I’ll be cataloguing, sorting, and repairing new fossils (I guess that’s a bit of an oxymoron) as they come in. Depending on how quickly I learn to rattle off dinosaur names and fun facts, I might be giving tours as well.

Ironically, I’m much more excited for this somewhat thrown-together project than for my original plan (which is a whole ‘nother hot mess of a story). I’ll post again once I fly out next Saturday!

xx

liicranberry