the revolving door of post-college plans: an open letter to my academic advisers

Dear Dr. Lupo and Dr. Mooring,

As I continue developing my plans for post-graduation (I've always, as you both well know, been a planner), I feel like I change my plans for what I want to do every seven days. This time I'm not freaking out about it, but I want to give you an update on the places my mind has been wandering and seek your advice as I move forward.

First I was thinking I'd study some kind of Ecology, which I narrowed down to coastal ecosystems. I had wanted to do some more hard science so I could make a claim to have an "expertise" of sorts in a scientific area before moving on. But as I looked at the options available, the kinds of things professors were studying, etc, I realized that science for the sake of science is not as interesting for me as I thought it was. I enjoy it, but I can't see myself focusing in on something specific like a community of clams or a certain marshplant. Then I spoke with recent Poli Sci dept grad Rachel Christensen, who started asking me about my Mexico involvement, and I remembered how much I love the people and organizations and issues I've been involved with at the border. The thought of leaving that world and those communities made me sad, and I began to wonder what I could do that could be a boon to environmental and community organizations around the border, or even at the Tijuana Estuary itself.  I broadened my search a little bit to consider watershed management, which at Univ. Wisc. Madison includes a broader community component, which would lend itself to work at the Tijuana Estuary. This drifted briefly into water resource engineering, which also looked interesting.

But as I was sitting in my "Geography of Transportation Systems" course here in Panama, I couldn't help but take heed of the butterflies in my stomach right before each class. I mean, I am seriously PUMPED whenever this class gets ready to start. As I began channeling these feelings into notes about the kinds of things I am interested, I was reminded of a list I made in Dr. Lupo’s class in choosing a topic for a research paper for our Scope and Methods class. The list was called “things that interest me, politically,” and I came up with public transportation, waste management, environmental justice, education, renewable energy, livable communities. The same list came up again when I was trying to come up with an Honors topic. Writing this list for the third time, I realized that all my interests are united as ways people are engaging to live together in cities and communities, and in the resolution of failures to address these issues. With this new vision of what interests me, I know that if I were to study ecology, I’d want to study urban ecology. But moreso than that, I’m beginning to wonder if urban planning or a similar field might be for me, either as a career path or at least a topic of study.

And so, this brings me to where I am now. I am now wanting to explore urban planning (or other interdisciplinary fields studying cities and sustainability), and I am wondering how I can begin exploring if this would be right for me. Is there anyone you can suggest I talk to explore this possibility? To help me get an idea of what it would take to start in area like this, and what other possibilities are out there? I’m sort of starting over from scratch, while still holding on to a couple of leads from my previous search that sounded interesting.

Thank you very much for your help, and for bearing with me on this perpetually changing landscape called my mind. I hope you both are doing very well. As you might have gathered from the aforementioned butterflies, I am loving my classes here in Panama (all of them! It’s a blast). I have also made a number of friends, but so far most of them are from the States… so it’s a challenge to go out and make Panamanian friends that I need to take up next.

Respectfully,

Daniel Virden

isla grande

This weekend was my first out-of-town adventure.

As part of our program, we took a tour of the Colón area of Panamá, on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus, directly north of Panama City. We ended up visiting Fort Lorenzo (an old Spanish fort from like the 1600's), the Gatún locks of the Panama Canal, and the city (well, town... village, almost) of Portobelo. It was fun, but we spent a LOT of time waiting for the ships to pass at the Canal. Definitely got a feel of what it's like to live near the world's largest multimodal intersection.

At the end of our trip, I decided to go on to Isla Grande, an island further east from Portobelo. I stayed at "El Rey Jackson," a combination hotel-and-mini-mart. It was the cheapest place on the island ($30 for a private room with fan and air conditioning), but I did not feel 100% confident about the cleanliness of the bed or shower. Still, it was private, which was nice, as it meant I could store my stuff safely without a problem. If I stayed again, I would have stayed at the "El Hostal y Pastelería," or something like that, just to the left of the dock I arrived at; it's a little more pricey ($35 for a dorm bed) but seemed a little livelier, with employees who were willing to talk and hang out, and breakfast was included. Ah well.

One person I met was the proprieter of the "Hotel Isla Grande," a large, comparatively luxurious establishment with private lawn and beach of its own. He made a point of helping me get oriented on the island, and let me rent a snorkel mask for only five bucks. A coral garden sat ten meters off the shore (spanning both the public and private half of the beach), with beautifully colored fish darting among the brain and fan coral structures. It was beautiful!

While everything turned out alright, my initial impressions of the island were not great. (I decided the island was much more "Lago de Atitlan" than "Glover's Reef Atoll.") The island is pretty heavily forested on the interior, with several rows of concrete housing at the shore. Most of the paths are more like alleys, with stray dogs wandering every corner. And there was a lot of trash along the shore; at times I passed residents sweeping trash directly into the ocean. The beach itself (a narrow stretch of sand near the Hotel Isla Grande) was clean and pretty, but the "regular" shoreline near people's houses was lightly peppered with garbage. After I got in my morning snorkel, I decided to make my way back to Panama City, and leave Isla Grande behind.

Going home, I was forced to recognize the garbage is not just an Isla Grande problem. All through the ride home I passed various piles of garbage or thin blankets of it along the side of the road, sometimes burning, other times simply persisting. I think to myself, "I want to fix it! I want to change something so that this beautiful country does not suffer from so much trash!" But litter and waste management is such a diffuse problem. Neither public action events (big clean-ups), anti-litter campaigns, or massive infrastructure developments can make a significant difference on their own. If people don't litter, where will they put their trash? And where will it go from there? And why is there so much single-use and disposable materials anyway in this country if there's nowhere to put it?

Which brings me back home to the states, where we still face litter, and problems with waste management, or even more dramatically with waste water and nuclear waste. Waste management is such a crazy problem, and I don't even know where to begin to change it. But I don't believe it is "just cultural"--this is a combination of major human challenges that we will need to face over the coming years. How can we generate less waste? What will we do with the waste we produce? And who will make these decisions?

With these questions weighing heavy on my mind, I returned home by way of Albrook mall, where I ordered a pizza (in a box that was thrown away) breadsticks (on a paper plate, wrapped in foil, with a plastic cup full of sauce), and a cinna-bon (on a paper plate, with a plastic fork) (and also a pack of individually-wrapped granola bars). Such  a stark contrast, reminding me that I, myself, am part of the problem. By weight I still generated more waste than the glass coke bottle I brought home with me to recycle. So for now, at least, I resign myself to continue as a cog in the machine, disupting none of waste-machine whose wheels I turn.

la economía de gracias

Esta mañana fui a la Iglesia del Nazareno en Ancón. Por este servicio, hicimos algo especial: cada persona leyó un versículo que fuera importante en su vida. Eramos veinte personas, más o menos (es una iglesia pequeña), y por eso todos podrían compartir. No preparé por este, y por eso compartí Filipenses 4:13. Es corto pero es muy fuerte, y me ayude leerlo a veces.

Después, la pastora le dio a cada persona dos pastillas (dulces), y dijo <<Coma uno de estas pastillas, y la otra va a dar a alguien en la iglesia que le ha edificado a usted.>> Entonces, cada persona, uno después del otro, levantó y compartió a quien le darían su pastilla y por qué. Era muy emocional, y cinco o seis personas lloraron compartiendo como Dios ha sido en su vida por la persona. Y yo también lloré poquito por las historias que compartieron.

Me algré de oír las historias de la iglesia, de ver como la gente ayude y ama como Dios. Algunos personas recibieron muchos dulces, porque han hecho muchas cosas importantes en la vida de su iglesia. A ver su pequeña fortuna de dulces, era un símbolo de sus vidas de servicio. Y algunas, cuando era tiempo para dar gracias a alguien, le dieron dulces a tres o más personas, algo que solo podrían hacer porque tan mucha gente ha compartido con ellas. Esa economía, una de gracias y amor, era un imagen de la reina de Dios en su pueblo, aquí en la tierra. Gracias a Dios por todo lo que hace, y por las personas que trae en nuestras vidas. Amen.


~

This morning I went to the Church of the Nazarene in Anvon. For this service, we did something special: each person read a verse that was important in their life. There were twenty of us, more or less (it is a small church), so everone was able to share. I didn't prepare, so I just shared Phillipians 4:13. It's short but powerful, and it helps me to re-read sometimes.

Then, the pastor gave everyone two candies, saying "Eat one of these, and the other you're going to give to someone in the church that has edified you/encouraged you." So, one after another, each person rose and shared whom they were giving their candy and why. It was very emotional, and five or six people cried sharing how God had been in their life through the person. I even cried a little, hearing the stories they shared.

I was very happy to hear the stories of the church, to see how people helped and loved one another as God would like them to. Some people received many candies, because they had done many important things for others in the church. Looking at their small fortune of candies, it was a symbol of their life of service. An some of them, when it was their turn to give thanks and give away a candy, gave candy to three or more people, something they could only do because so many people had shared with them. This economy of thanks and love, is an image of the Kingdom of God in his people, here on Earth. Thanks be to God for all that he does, and for the people he brings into our lives. Amen.

Mi Biblia, y la pastilla que recibí por amigo Scott en la Iglesia del Nazareno en Ancón.