If there’s one word that I could use to describe this summer, it would be OVERWHELMING! I was busy every single day, even on the weekends. But, I also really enjoyed myself, met some great people, and had some amazing learning experiences.
The reason that I was so busy this summer was because I had signed up for two very important classes for my future- an archaeological field school and a forensic science field school. You may be wondering what I mean when I say field school (don’t worry, I got that question a lot from friends and family all summer). Field school simply means that I was going to a site every day and actually “doing archaeology.” In terms of the forensic field school, I was learning about different applications of forensics and then using those applications in practice!
My archaeological field school was during the first half of the summer. When I first arrived in the classroom, at 8 AM, I was feeling like a fish out of water. I wasn’t sure if I belonged in that room, and kept asking myself, “What am I doing here?” It wasn’t until a few days in, when we were assigned our dig partners and actually began digging shovel test pits, that I felt like I fit in. For the first two weeks, I only really talked to my dig partner, because digging shovel test pits is not something that you do with a group. We got to know each other, and I would confidently call him a good friend now.
Once we were done with the test pits, we moved on to actual excavation units. I wish there was something exciting I could report from the test pits, but that’s the point of them! Which is, to test if there is something there (there was not). My excavation group was an incredible group of people. We had great conversations almost the entire day, every day.
As far as my unit goes, I probably had the worst luck with where I was placed. My unit had acquired a nickname by the end of the field school: “The Pit of Despair.” While archaeologically, my unit was a very valuable one, it was definitely an irritating one for my first time ever doing this! The unit was full of large rocks that made it difficult to advance to the next level. What made it worth it was the amount of cool artifacts we found! We found a lot of burnt bones, likely from a cow or pig, and so many interesting pottery shards. The most satisfying part of this dig was when I finally reached the bottom of the pit of despair, and could start to draw and backfill it!
Once the first field school was over, we all said goodbye and went our separate ways. I still keep in touch with most of the people there, but only a few of us live around the area.
The next week, my forensic science field school began! Remember that fish out of water feeling I described with the first field school? Well imagine me feeling this again, but doubled. In the first field school, I felt more comfortable because I was learning along with everybody else, but in this field school, everybody there was significantly more experienced than I was.
I can’t talk about this field school in as much detail due to the subject material, but what I can say is that, like the archaeology field school, I met some cool people and learned a lot of new things! It was definitely a more demanding six weeks, despite the fact that I was doing actual physical labor previously, but I think that it was worth it, and if I could go back, I would still take both of the classes. I was definitely relieved when they were over, though, so I could have a chance to relax a bit!