After doing so, I realized that so much of my identity was built around my career when that's only a fraction of who I really am. I definitely have historically prioritized it, but I've been swayed by the new Gen Z mindset. As cliche as it is, I've been trying to stop "living to work" and am now "working to live". As such, I thought about what I'd been incredibly passionate about during other times in my life.

Historically, wherever I've lived, I've tried to volunteer doing something meaningful for the community. I realized that this project was the perfect way to identify my next volunteer opportunity after moving to Buffalo, NY at the start of the summer. My last step of self-exploration (or so I thought) was to figure out what kind of volunteer work I wanted to do, so I wrote down everything that I could think of that I enjoyed doing.

When I realized how long it'd taken me to put down anything about being Queer, I was shocked. It's a part of my identity that I've recognized for a long time but never embraced as much I should. I realized that a great way to work on it while doing the city-research part of the course would be to dive into the Queer community of Buffalo and see what spoke to me.

I started out by doing a deep dive into the Queer history of Buffalo. I didn't realize how much rich history there was. It's hard to condense a single city's history with so many landmark events into one concise summary, but here is my attempt:

* 1900s- Buffalo was one of the safer cities for Queer people seeking a place they can be themselves.
* 1940s and 50s- There was a thriving gay and lesbian bar scene in Buffalo, partially kept safe by necessary bribery to the police to stay away.
* 1960s- A crackdown on police corruption and anti-Queer rhetoric resulted in many of them being shut down and paved over.
* 1970s and 80s- An upswing of activism started the work to make Buffalo safer again for Queer people.
* 1981- New York v Onofre paved the way for overturning sodomy laws across the US.
* 1990s and 2000s- Continued work to protect the rights of Queer residents and formalize them in law.
* 2010s- Numerous efforts to document the history of the Queer movement in Western NY.
* 2020s - Ongoing focus on intersectionality and Trans Rights.

As a part of this learning, I also interviewed several Queer people that had lived in Buffalo for most of their lives in my extended circle to learn more about their history and experience in the Queer community. I really enjoyed getting to hear more about what it was like over time. They contained some common notes: prejudice and varying levels of bullying when they were younger but that things have gotten a lot better since they've grown up. The 90s had some darker moments, including a friend's partner getting murdered in a hate crime. We've come a long way, but there are still strides to be made.

That's when I settled on the group that I plan to work with, the Buffalo Niagara LGBTQ History Project. They offer walking tours around the city, and I plan to help with one next week. They also do research with the goal of putting on events to help educate the community on what's happened here. Their current initiative for a November 2023 event is understanding the Trans History of Buffalo. Though I'm still working to finalize specific details with them, my Term 2 project will likely be working to update their woefully out-of-date website to make it informative of what they're currently working on and how people can get involved.

Note: as a side note, I have repurposed an old blog and cleared out most of the articles, but feel free to check any of them out if you're interested.

• For a long time, I wanted to be a mermaid. I've always loved the ocean, and I'm constantly singing (albeit badly a lot of the time). One of my favorite books when I was younger was Mermaid Tales from Around the World (which I now realize totally missed what could have been a puntastic title). Eventually, I realized this wasn't possible.

• Then my goal was to read the most books out of anyone ever. This was my late elementary school, middle school, early high school phase of existence. I devoured books like they were food (which I also liked to devour and still do). I don't think I really had defined objectives beyond the fact that I loved to read (mostly fantasy books but some other genres thrown in there for good measure) and was good at math and science. I HATED history and only got by in most of my high school classes because I made sure I was in the second period. The teachers never changed the essay prompts, so I traded helping people in other classes for the essay prompts on tests. Yes, this is technically cheating, but I considered it strategic studying.

• My sophomore biology class changed everything. I'd never been so enthused about a subject probably ever. I'd loved science since my 6th grade teacher Mr. Burrell (who also started the middle school's half marathon club and was just one of those teachers that everyone loved, even people that hated school). In particular, I loved genetics and its applications for cancer research. When I was looking for where to go to school, I knew that I ultimately wanted to get my PhD in Genetics or Cancer Research, so I ended up at Rose-Hulman because they were a math/science/engineering school closeish to home where I just clicked with the school when I visited. For four years, I did research for the Genetics professor , ultimately completing an undergraduate thesis on Nonsense Suppression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Unfortunately, I realized during that time that I absolutely hated doing research, so I turned down the offer to my top PhD program (the Van Andel Institute Graduate School) and accepted a job at a local startup, DeveloperTown.

• I wanted to be an entrepreneur and make the next Facebook. Actually, not Facebook because I've never been a huge fan of social media, but something similar. Some of my favorite projects that I worked on were Recoverator (a registration tracking tool for filing insurance reports), FarmersMarket.com (which at the time was a system for creating Farmers Market hubs that connect directly to local farmers), and a tool for basically creating a prioritized list based on 1v1 comparisons*. I loved my time at DeveloperTown. For a while, I was basically the only non-designer, non-developer, so I got to track KPIs for projects, do resourcing, help manage the sales pipeline, manage projects, help create backlogs, do a lot of the company culture events, and help represent DeveloperTown at local startup events. I even helped dust off the company blog, something that was surprisingly rewarding (#foreshadowing?). But when we grew bigger and everyone had to find a more defined role within the company, there just wasn't a place for me anymore that I wanted.

• I realized that my favorite things at DT were the KPI and budget tracking that I was doing, so I started looking for roles as an analyst. For the next four years, I was a budget/marketing/sales/data analyst with a little bit of other things thrown in. It was good experience. I learned how to work on teams where I was the least important person. I bought work dresses and black pants and learned that tie dye is never appropriate, even when it's Colts Day and your tie dye is Colts tie dye. I learned that you need to take your computer home even if you're not allowed to work from home because of perceptions. I learned that as a young, assertive female, I needed to get my boss to present many of my ideas for me because otherwise they wouldn't gain traction. In other words, I learned how corporate America works. And I realized that it wasn't a good fit for me.

• Now I live in DC and am doing freelancing on several projects while exploring everything the town has to offer. I'm looking for a full time position, but I'm waiting for the right thing instead of taking the first job that comes along (or the second or the fifth). I want to make a difference in my next role, whether it be by being a contributor to large team or one of only a few employees at a small company. I want to be able to use my skills for more than just sitting behind a desk and occasionally having to subtly introduce my ideas at a weekly meeting. I want to care about my job and the work I'm doing, ideally for a company that's making a difference somehow. I know that's vague, but that's where I'm at right now. I know more about what I don't want to do than what I want to do, so I'm figuring it out by ear. And as a part of that, I decided to put together this blog of cool things I'm doing, projects I decide to tackle, and new experiences. I don't know if anyone is going to read it, but I'm going to keep writing (hopefully), and maybe it'll at least help me collect my thoughts and figure out what I want to do with my life.

• I used an online tool version of this called Pub Meeple to make my board game Top 100 this year.

Trudging along, I zipped up my Rose-Hulman Night Hosting hoodie as I fingered the pocket knife that I carried with me. Though the blade was only an inch long, it provided comfort, helping me think that I'd be able to defend myself against anything that I came up against. I was probably wrong.

The cars driving along Westfield broke up the eerie silence of the evening, reminding me how close people were to where I was walking. The sound slowly quieted as I reached the segment of the trail that was separated from Westfield by The Reserve and Island Woods. I picked up my pace, starting to feel a bit nervous about making the walk after dark.

I froze in place when I heard rustling coming from the side of the trail. After a few seconds, I heard the noise again, confirming my fear that there was definitely something in the woods. I was just about to take off running when I heard a voice call, "Can you help me? I've lost my dog."

Now, if this were a horror movie, I'd be the first person yelling at the screen, telling the teen starlet not to fell prey to the serial killer with a wickedly sharp knife. In real life, I sympathized with whomever it was scrambling around, searching for their lost pet. So, I did what any dog-lover would do and hopped the fence, hoping to help someone else out and not be brutally murdered.

Fifteen minutes later, the dog had been found and the grateful owner had given me a six-pack of Magic Hat Number 9. I was feeling much more optimistic about humanity, the Monon Trail, and even myself. This strange encounter had reaffirmed my belief that many of us are all struggling along together, and that I should do whatever I could to help anyone that ever asked me for help. That was the night that I recommitted to leaving this world better than I found it. And, I've stuck to that commitment.

This post was in response to ThinkKit's December 3rd prompt: share the strangest experience of your year.