A couple months ago I shared Conan O'Brian's 2011 Dartmouth commencement speech on my Facebook page. I felt the need then to spread it around because I was impressed by not only its humor, which I expected, but by it's message, which was both profound and directly relevant to my life the past few years.

Conan said in his address "There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized." I know this is true because this happened to me.

When I graduated Dartmouth in 2007 I thought I had the next phase of my life completely laid out in front of me. I was in a Ph.D. program in Madison, WI, and I had moved there with my girlfriend of the past two years. My worst fear was that I would somehow mess up this perfect plan.

To abbreviate a tragic story, I messed it up. My funding was cut and I was forced to graduate with my Masters degree in December 2008 after just 3 semesters. I had neglected my studies my first year, and in my rush to finish that last semester, was forced to neglect both my future and my friends.

To quote Conan quoting somebody else: "Nietzsche famously said "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But what he failed to stress is that it almost kills you."

In January of 2009 I found myself unemployed in a staggeringly poor job market and living on my now ex-girlfriend's couch. I applied to probably 50 different jobs and internships at ski areas, the Student Conservation Association, the National Park Service, and a few other random places. For that month I heard nothing back and was left to wonder at night as I slept on that couch what had become of my life.

Then, good things started to happen. I got one offer, to work as a visitor services intern at Guadalupe Mountains Naitional Park from March through May, and then another, to work in Yellowstone National Park as in intern through the Geological Society of America's GeoCorps program during the summer.

Later that year my friend Sarah was able to help hook me up with a job and place to live for the winter in Vail, CO. While working in Vail I convinced my Yellowstone supervisor to rehire me to work there for another summer, and I also applied to grad school again and was accepted at Arizona State.

Conan, speaking of his own time in between leaving the Tonight Show and debuting on TBS but mirroring my feelings towards my time off from school, said "it was the most satisfying and fascinating year of my professional life. To this day I still don't understand exactly what happened, but I have never had more fun, been more challenged—and this is important—had more conviction about what I was doing."

This Thursday I will begin my second year as a Ph.D. student in Volcanology at ASU. Yellowstone and Vail, like Dartmouth and Oklahoma before them, are now places that I feel have become a part of me. Living in those two places directly changed my outlook on life and I would not be the person I am today without the influence of those experiences.

January and February of 2009 were the most depressing weeks of my life and marked the end of a dream I had been following for many years. I was forced to follow a new dream, one I was creating and shaping as I went along, not always with a clear idea of where it would lead me. In the end I did return to graduate school, but in a program better suited to me and with the experience and drive necessary to succeed.

I would not be where I am today, or who I am today, without having lived the through the disappointment that consumed my last months in Madison. Knowing now the path I followed after I left Wisconsin and where it led me, if given the chance to relive my time there, I would gladly let disaster befall me again, just to be able to experience the three years since.

To end his commencement remarks Conan said "Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen." I couldn't agree more.

Road Trip 2011: By the Numbers

I got to Tempe on Saturday from my latest epic summer road trip. I really am fortunate to be able to have so many amazing trips like this, props to grad school and the nomadic periods of my life I guess. Instead of writing a boring trip report though, I think a simple list of intriguing numbers, a la Sports Illustrated, will be an entertaining way to recap my journey:

4700: Miles driven
109: Highest Temperature recorded while I was in OK
106: High Temperature the day I returned to Tempe
-57: Net Indian Casino winnings
32: Lowest temperature experienced (there was ice on the picnic tables in camp one morning)
32: Total Days
11: Days doing field work
4: Days playing ultimate
4: Days hiking
8: Days on the road
31: Total Nights
14: in a tent
2: in my car
4: on the floor
2: on a sleeper sofa
5: in a hotel bed
4: in my own bed
29.4: Average mpg for the whole trip
19: Total number of 14ers I've climbed, after climbing Bierstadt and Evans on this trip
13: Games of ultimate played
10: States visited (AZ, UT, ID, WY, MT, CO, KS, OK, TX, NM, in that order)
6: National Park Service Units Visited (Cedar Breaks, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Fossil Butte, Rocky Mountain, Petrified Forest)
2.3: days/shower ratio
8: days/shower ratio while in Yellowstone
3: Bear sightings
2: Wolf sightings
1: Pairs of boxers worn for the 2 weeks in Yellowstone