On mapping

When I finally realized that making maps was actually something one could get paid for (and following the disastrous results of attempting to play pool for a living) I decided that I would one day make maps for National Geographic. I would be a Cartographer. For National Geographic. The only real dream of a job I ever had, other than the childhood fixation with being a vet and raising sled dogs (which I'd like to again as well, coincidentally).

I mentioned my fixation to my professor, who encouraged me to apply for a cartographic internship with NG. So I did. I waited. And failed. They didn't want me. Not even as an unpaid intern. I was crushed.

It was too late to get an internship for the summer.

Then random trust-afarian kid shows up at our department pimping the SCA (which I thought stood for the Society for Creative Anachronism). I flipped through the catalog, disinterested. Then I hit one. Sat up straight on my stool in the manual cartography lab. "Field Assistant needed to GPS thermal features, Yellowstone National Park" Started in July. Could one really get paid for such a thing? I LOVE hot springs.

Applied

Interviewed (with Kendra - bless her heart and no, I'm not a geyser gazer!)

Accepted

Moved

Fast forward ten or so years.

Got a meeting with David from National Geographic maps. We give them the data, they make the maps. I'm sitting in a meeting with this guy and realize, in a strictly vicarious way, my wish actually came true. I'm helping make maps for National Geographic. Dang.

Now just need to get a couple more sled dogs...

[as a side note, I met someone a few years back who was accepted and interned at NG and he said it sucked - they worked them like slaves and they just smoked pot in the office all the time. Guess I dodged a bullet there after all.]