Jennifer Nafziger, 2B Geological Engineering
The great waves of the Pacific crash only a few meters below me as I write. I am sitting on the Bolsa Chica State beach in southern California, somehow escaping the great white Canadian winter. I watch the black dots marking sandpipers and surfers with a sense of disbelief: how in the world did I end up here? I hope this essay will help answer that question, both for the reader and for myself.
I spent the best days of my childhood on the shores of Lake Huron. I taught myself to swim in the chilly waters and spent countless hours collecting shells and driftwood. But my favourite was the stones. For hours I would search for the prettiest stones; the prize was a piece of smooth rose quartz or pink granite. I was always disappointed that they never looked as pretty when dry as they did when I first saw them underwater. I remember expressing my disappointment to my grandfather (a rock hound in his own right). He took a few of my stones and when I came back to visit the next weekend he had tumbled them smooth, revealing the beauty I saw through the waves. Even though my grandfather has been dead for years I still have those polished stones, I almost wish I had them with me now.
ABOVE: Jennifer Nafziger visiting the Giant Sequoia National Park in March 2004, includes two of her favourite things: rocks and trees!
My interests also expanded inland. I had an independent exploratory sprit: roaming the woodlots all day, seeing how the sun glinted off the rocks, climbing to observe how moss clung to high-up branches and watching the herons angle in the river. I would spend summer evenings with my feet in swamp-water-soaked rubber boots, trying to catch frogs and turtles. I know exactly how I looked when I came home for bed: mud from head to toe and one giant smile. My mother would just shake her head and chuckle. She would just put me into a warm bath where I would express another geological obsession through dinosaur-shaped soap, dinosaur-shaped sponges and little plastic dinosaur figures.
Time, as it tends to do, marches on. Those precious summer months gave way to years, and we can't play in the woods forever. Or can we? I spent my first full time summer job as a stewardship ranger with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. I was in heaven. I was paid to get muddy, work in the woods and learn absolutely everything I could about plants, water and soil. I left that summer knowing one thing: I have to be able to work out of doors. Eventually I had to decide what to do with myself after high school. I knew that I wanted a job that was scientific; I wanted to explore new ideas. But I also wanted a job that would allow for field work. Strangely, it was an interest in inorganic chemistry that led me to geological engineering. I had applied to geochemistry, geology, and chemical engineering at various Ontario universities. Then, two days before the final deadline for making changes to your OUAC application, I was flipping through the Waterloo application guide and discovered geological engineering. That March, my final choice was easy after I was shown around Waterloo's Engineering and Earth Science labs by a very enthusiastic Geo Eng grad. I have not looked back.
Today I can only look forward to the next four months with Komex's geoscience team in California, to graduation, and then to wherever the winds will carry me next.