The End of One Era and the Beginning of the Next

It's official, I am now Kirsty Patrick, BSc. After six very long years that I never thought I would finish, I have completed my degree and have attained a 2:1 in Ecology and Conservation.

I attended my graduation on a very wet and cold September morning, however nothing could dampen my mood. There was a tiny moment of panic as we were held up in traffic, and I started to melt down much to the chagrin of my best friend, AKA the driver. We made it with seconds to spare and I all but collapsed into my chair, not caring that I was wet and my hair that I spent an hour on that morning now looked like a nest. I was THERE. 

The national anthem was sung, a prayer was said, the Pro Vice Chancellor (that we all went "oh so that's who it is!") said his speech and finally, one by one we lined up as graduands, had our gown checked and were given a rolled up piece of paper before walking up the platform, shaking hands with a random stranger we'd never before laid eyes on and walk through the cathedral to rejoin the others and retake our seats as graduates. There was laughter, cheers and tears, but underlying it all was the love and support we'd given each other over the past four years, accumulating in a rush of relief and joy that we had done it.

None of this, however, registered in my mind at the time. The combination of my stomach doing flips along with the worry that I would fall over in my heels and make a complete idiot of myself meant that as I reached the point before my name was called, I actually had to be reminded by one of the stewards that it was okay to smile! Thankfully, I did remember to smile, did not fall over and it was with a sigh of relief that I sank back in my seat.

The whole event lasted less than 2 hours, and when it was over, we all spilled out for the inevitable celebratory photos:

And so here we are! I am done, I am finished and I am ready for the next challenge in life, which started just 2 months later when I began....

MY MASTERS DEGREE!!

Yes, after finishing my bachelor's and taking a well deserved holiday to recover from the exams and my dissertation, I became a fresher again, only this time I was looking at all the fresh faced undergraduates with a smile of nostalgia but also a smile of pride that I had moved on to the next level of my education. I am now located at Nottingham Trent University, studying MRes Biodiversity Conservation.

It is 6 weeks into my new course and I can honestly say I underestimated just how much work would be involved. Still, I relish the challenge and as a result, I have learnt to use a new statistical software (r), I have made some fantastic new friends on both my course and as part of the medieval society, and my thesis has been accepted so I am now working on the final proposal (watch this space!)

I can't wait to see what the next two years bring, and I hope you stick around to find out!

Why is Biodiversity Important to Me?

My lecturer asked us to write a response to this question after asking us about the very first time we had an interest in biology ad ecology. It was actually hard to do both these things, mainly because I don't remember a time when I DIDN'T have a  love of biology, and also because it's hard to express in words why it is that biodiversity is important to me. Still, I think it is something that I should at least try to write about, especially as I want a career in biodiversity, and if I don't even know why it is important to me, how can I hope to spend my life conserving it? So, I spent five minutes thinking about it and when I finally put pen to paper, I found the words came easily and the hard part was actually knowing when to stop. I ended up writing a page, much to the amusement of my peers. This is what I wrote (and how I feel):

Biodiversity is everywhere you look. it is biodiversity that creates such complex and  beautiful surroundings and landscapes and fills the planet with so much colour and vibrancy. Without biodiversity, the world would be a much darker place.

Many of the things we enjoy and even take for granted are a result  of biodiversity: hiking, fishing, gardening, photography, art and many more: they all, in some way or another, need biodiversity or there would be nothing to look at and enjoy, nothing to inspire some of the greatest work in history. Van Gough's Sunflowers for example, would simply not exist without the biodiversity that created the flowers.

Biodiversity is important to me not only because of the  beauty it brings, but also because  of the  services it provides. If there were no bees, there would be less plants and almost no pollination. Without plants, there would be less oxygen to breathe  and we would  cease to  exist.  In this essence, biodiversity is life itself; without it, we could not survive.

I saddens me to see children that have never been to the countryside. Even more so when they grow excited because they saw their first rabbit that wasn't born and raised in a cage. The more we take away biodiversity, the more children will grow up never seeing the world for what it really is: a place of wander, beauty and most importantly, a place of life. That is why it is important to me.

So, that is my own personal feelings, although I added one last sentence to the back of the sheet that made my lecturer laugh:

There is also the fact that without biodiversity, I wouldn't have a job or a degree, and that would kinda suck.

With that final comment, I now ask you the same question- why is biodiversity important to YOU?

Intensive Courses

Something I have now done three time in my education is an intensive field course. All weeks played out very similarly: you had a number of days away and in those days you had a certain number of tasks to complete that were assessed through the week. The weeks were in different locations and for different lengths of time, but all involved a lot of stress, hunger and sleep deprivation, leading to some very temperamental people!

The first time I did a week like this, I was 15, studying for my GCSEs and we were taken to Malham, Yorkshire, for 3 days. While there, we undertook fieldwork in rivers (measuring discharge, velocity, width and depth), climbed the steps of a 90 feet tall limestone and karst formation, visited a cave system with some of the most stunning stalactites and stalagmites I've ever seen, attempted to climb a waterfall whilst learning about it's development (until someone slipped and fell into the plunge pool due to some ice, thus forcing us to turn back), looked at agriculture management and then spent time composing a survey to ask the public about their opinions of the leisure and tourism in the area. During the week, we had quite heavy snow, forcing us to take alternative routes to sites and on one occasion, having to help a student who stepped onto a pile of snow and ended up to her waist in the drift.

The second time, I was 17 and it was for my A-level Geography class. We went to Yorkshire again, this time to a village called Kirby Grindalythe and this time, for 5 days. Through the week we looked at and undertook fieldwork on the soil pH of woodlands, woodland management, settlement, coastal erosion, sand dune succession, heathland soils and management, sustainable tourism and agriculture. We had issues with the weather during the week, mainly students being unprepared for a heatwave n May (an extremely rare occurrence here in the UK) and a number of people ended up ill, including myself who suffered from severe heatstroke the first night, however I still loved the week.

Finally, there was the latest week, that was part of my degree. It took place in Bangor, Wales and was for 8 days in June 2014. The workload was the most intense I have ever faced, as each assignment was designed to be completed in just a few hours. As for sleep, I discovered that everything looked a good place to catch a few Z's. I napped on the bus and during lunch almost every day to catch up. I even found myself snoozing on a rock in the middle of Snowdonia NP when there was a spare 15 minutes after collecting my data! It was very clear who had and hadn't slept through the day as those that hadn't were usually quite mean-tempered by the evening lecture! Still through the week I learned about the geology of North Wales, freshwater ecology, behaviour of sea birds, mountain ecology, the effects of heavy metal contamination at a mining site as well as learning a range of surveying techniques I'd never used before.

Now, I have thought long and hard about these weeks and I have realised that I absolutely LOVE them. Sure at the time, I want to cry, scream and at times have even wanted to go home, but I always end the week feeling a greater sense of accomplishment and progression that I never feel with any of my other courses. I wish more modules were as intensive, or similarly intensive, for example taking 1-3 months  and you  have no  exams,only continuous  assessment. I have a number of reasons why I feel these courses are beneficial, listed below:

THE SCENERY: Every trip feels like being in a fantasy as we were shown spectacular view after spectacular view (see images below-this was the view from my room!) while undertaking various elements of fieldwork that were new to most of us. 

Views from my room in Bangor!


LOTS of fieldwork: In a normal module, there may be a small handful of practicals, but none give you quite the sense of work as doing it every day for a week. Just in Wales, I learned about copper mine pollution, Hana probes, Ballantyne's scoring, coastal ecology, freshwater sampling and a wide range of statistical analyses I'd never heard of before. Even if I  had covered these in a normal length module, I probably would have forgotten each thing by the time I next did it, however we had so little time between assignments and practicals, EVERYTHING stuck, because if you didn't learn it, you wouldn't be able to complete that day's assignment.

TEAMWORK: At each field week I have ever been on, you have to work with the others in your group to ensure all the work is completed,and sometimes, you need the other people to help make sure your work is a good quality. On my first two courses, I knew most of the people as I had been at school with them for a number of years. The course to Wales, however, was made up of only a small number of people I knew, the others being on a separate course to me that meant I'd never been in the same classes as them. At first, this made me nervous, but by the end of the week, I knew everyone's names and had made a bunch of new friends, whilst cementing the firendship I already had with the others.

A closer connection with your lecturers: With every one of these trips, I have felt like I know my teachers/lecturers on a more personal level as you get to actually interact with them and see that they are normal human beings just like you and they suffer as much as you do with the lack of sleep. You get to see them walk around in their pyjamas first thing in the morning as they simply don't care that you may ridicule them- they just want to get their morning coffee and then get back to being the serious adult you know them as. The absolute best thing is that when you return back to the normal bump and grind of life, you will always remember seeing that side of them and in some ways, it leads to a greater level of respect for all the crap they put up with from you students.

And finally...

The memories you will cherish: Some of the best memories of my life have come from the intensive courses I have been on. My time in Wales led to me being brave and conquering my fear of the ocean by partaking in the tradition of going for a swim as the sun sets in the North sea (though the funniest part of that is my stupid decision to wear jeans and having my lecturer hold me up while I stripped them off when they got too heavy to wear!). I will never forget the look of shock on my teachers face when at 15, my friend and I (who were both army cadets at the time), decided to start climbing up a 90 feet cliff because we'd done a similar exercise at camp a few weeks before and managed to get almost halfway up before we were spotted (I think the teacher still has nightmares from that one) and I will never forget how rewarding and how blessed I am to have seen and done so much in a short space of time. Malham, Kirby Grindalythe and Bangor have all cemented a special place in my heart, and someday, I hope to return to each of them with my children and show them that these three locations is where their mummy reached the breaking point of her education choice and crossed over it to fall even more in love with her life, knowing that no matter what, the choice of her degree is one she would never wish to change. 

University: is three years of stress, heartache and headaches REALLY worth it?

University is great and I recommend it to most people (the only people I don't recommend it to are those who  wish to pursue a career that a degree isn't essential for and that may be better to do an apprenticeship). Of course, most people know about the pros of university- independence, building friendships, another 3 years to decide what you want to do in life, the parties,etc, but I want to talk about the career benefits I have gained so far, and they are why I encourage people to go to  university.

Sure, there will probably be modules you have to take that you don't want to (in my case Physics and Chemistry), but the modules you choose for yourself will make up for that (again in my case, Molecular Biology and Practical Ecology). By being at university, I have studied more things than I ever did at school, and yes, some have been a bit tedious and boring, however I have gained and improved on my skills through all of them. I didn't HAVE to go to university, but there is no denying that because I have gone, I will have a much higher chance of a job in the field of ecology for doing it. I also spend most of my life adamant that I was going to work with wolves,but in my second year of my degree,i was introduced to the fascinating world of fragmentation, land degradation and woodland structures,  and wolves, though I still love and would adore to work with, are the secondary goals as  I now have so many more areas I wish to discover and research.

If I had jumped straight into employment, I could have been asked to write a report and chances are that if it wasn't a good standard, it would be returned to me for me to write again, with no notes to help me. At university, you have 2-3 years of constant help and guidance so that when you get that job and hand in that report, you know you have written a good piece. When you are asked to speak in front of a group of strangers, you can do it with confidence because through university you gave around 30 presentations to people you know, and they are your toughest critics. The other bonus to university is access to programmes that you would have had to pay hundreds, sometimes,thousands of pounds for, in my case, ArcGIS software and the statistics programme Minitab, both of which would have cost me around £1000 to own. I have both programmes downloaded on to my laptop for free, because I am a student, and I get to keep them when I graduate. 

The other amazing thing about choosing university is the sheer number of contacts you will make. For example, I have been taught by 15 different lecturers, and through them,I have made contact or been given the details of another 5 people. During second year, we had a dissertation induction and from that I was introduced to a man who, after discovering my dream of working in Canada and preferably as a field researcher/consultant, gave me his card and said that when I graduate I am to contact him and he will put me in touch with his colleagues  and contacts in Canada. Now,  if I hadn't gone to university, this amazing opportunity probably would never have come my way. I have done hours of volunteering, doing work that has given me experience in areas I may have had to work for years before getting close to it. I have attended guest seminars, making even more connections, and I have met some of the most amazing and inspirational people.

There are days, especially when doing a hard assignment or when there are 3 assignment deadlines and an exam to revise for all due the same week, that I have asked the question "Why am I even here?". It's especially hard when you go through a period where you try your hardest yet aren't getting good mark sand you just feel like you're wasting your time.

For me, this  happened in January 2014. I hadn't seen my family since September, my grades were averaging at a 55 (a 2:2) and I isolated myself from my friends  by locking myself away as more assignments came my way. It got to the point that I was so desperate to escape that I was a click away from booking a one-way trip home when my deceased mum's voice filtered through the haze of desperation, asking me if I really wanted to throw away the past few years that I had fought so hard for and what would I do with my life if I left? That masters and PhD I wanted would never happen, and the chances of landing my dream job would drop drastically, so was I REALLY ready to give it all up?

That gave me a pause, so I closed the browser, picked up the phone and called my grandparents. There were a lot of tears and claims that I didn't want to be there any more, but my gran took it all in and right before we ended the call, she said simply "hang in there, you're making us all so proud". Just those few words (and the fact she wouldn't let me come and visit) gave me a new strength and a couple of weeks later, I was back into the swing of things. I threw myself even more into my studies and suddenly, with this new flame lit under me, things I had struggled to understand were suddenly as easy as my ABC's. I saw my friends again, I met up with people regularly to study and when doing my assignments, I headed to the library where I would most likely see people I knew instead of being locked away in my room. I joined a new society that had nothing to do with my degree (for those interested, it was the Harry Potter Society), I became more involved on Faceboook and found that people I'd rarely seen before were now becoming great friends and crucial support systems. My grades skyrocketed and I found myself consistently getting marks in the 70s (a 1st) and by the time my exams arrived, my average was now at 63(a 2:1) so I felt much more confident and now feel much happier about my degree. 

At the end of my second year, I managed to achieve a 58.2. Even six months ago, I would have seen this as failure, but now, I see only success as my grades were so poor at the start of the year. I now know that I have the potential to get the high grades, and though I know I have 0 chance of graduating with a 1st which was my original aim, I know that with the right effort, I can get a  very solid 2:1 and can still apply for my masters (I am currently in the process of contacting potential supervisors in Canada), which is definitely not a failure. 

I am just entering my third and final year, and with one of the modules for the year already under my belt (an intensive week in Wales doing ecology work) and my dissertation planned and data beginning to be collected, I remain hopeful, motivated and challenged. Sometimes I hate my degree, but mostly, I love it.

What exactly IS Ecology and Conservation?

Ecology is the study of how the environment and ecosystems function and Conservation is how to preserve them to stop them from being destroyed and potentially costing mankind a great service ( Such as the destruction of the rainforests- once it’s gone, that’s a whole lot less oxygen we have to live on!)

To me, I always thought the meaning of ecology and conservation is obvious. But when I told my family the course I had chosen to study, instead of receiving congratulations and pats on the back, all I got were a whole lot of confused and blank stares. None of them had a clue what I was talking about. They all knew what conservation is but none knew about ecology, so I had to translate it into simple terms:  “The Environment and how to stop it from being destroyed”, I explained. Once again, I expected congratulations now they understood what I was doing- in my 18 year old mind, I was studying how to save the planet, surely I deserved some sort of celebration right?

Wrong. Not just by the family, but by society in general I have been called a hippie, tree-hugger and as one person has said to me a number of times “you’re wasting your time”. I’ve also had “What kind of job are you going to be able to get?”  and “Oh. So you’re going to be on a crap wage for your whole life. Good luck with that.” The worst question anybody has ever asked me and has annoyed me greatly is this:

“What’s the point?”

Now, I may be much older and wiser than when I was 18, but even now at 23, I can’t help but feel that people are missing just how important studying the environment is. Those who ask what’s the point in me doing it have had a variety of reactions from me, from anger to disappointment that they can brush me and my choices aside and assume I’m just another tree hugger that’s all about peace and save the Earth.

I don’t consider myself a hippie: I consider myself Environmentally Aware. I sometimes leave my lights on when I leave the room, use kitchen roll and use soap from a bottle like most people do, however I make sure that all the things I have are eco-friendly so though I still feel guilty for  doing/using these things, at  least I have an eco-mind behind it.

Ecology and conservation is such a valuable thing to life and has  done so much already. For example, through ecology, Yellowstone National Park has re-introduced wolves that have stabilised the ecosystem (As shown below, image courtesy of National Geographic, 2010) and has helped increase tourism, therefore  benefiting the  economy.

As for conservation, one major success is that in 2006, 10% of the world's land is now covered with wildlife reserves (New Scientist). It is likely that this number has actually increased since,which is fantastic news as nature reserves add protection and awareness to target species and once again, brings tourism to an area, boosting the economy.

So next time somebody asks me, or even you, what is the point in studying ecology after you explain what it is and ask if I am/you are wasting your time, simply shrug and let them decide for themselves. I am proud of  my subject, and I am excited at the potential to add to the great work that has already been achieved. Let the haters hate and be proud that you chose the environment route!

Greetings!

Hello to you, welcomed guest, friend, or person I sat in front of the computer and  forced to read!

I have set up this blog in order to note down my interests, discoveries and thoughts as well as my hopes and dreams. At times, my posts will be serious but mostly,  they will simply be observations I make and may have comments that I find funny (but even if no-one else agrees, I will still say it because it's amusing to me).

I am currently 23 years  old and studying Ecology and Conservation at Canterbury Christ Church University in England. I have just finished my second year and at the moment my goal after graduation is to do a masters programme out in Canada and hopefully find work eventually in the field, preferably as an ecological consultant or surveyor, before eventually settling into teaching at a university.  Of course, these are big dreams and there will be many blocks in the way as well as a few detours but  I hope to eventually fulfil at least some of my dreams.

So, I am about to enter my final year and have already started one assignment as one of  my modules, a field week in Wales, begins at the end of June and there's a couple of assignments to do before then. I am very excited for all this next year will bring and I  look forward to improving my GIS skills with Advanced GIS as well as improving my organisational and self-motivational skills through my individual study.

Whatever this year (and the following years) bring, I hope yo will enjoy sharing my journey with me and I will try to upload at least once a week, though this may turn into once a month. I any case, I hope you gain some enjoyment and maybe even knowledge from this blog and I look forward to seeing you in my next entry!

Ciao for now,

Kirsty