2014: My Year In Review

 "Celebrate what you want to see more of." -Tom Peters

2014 has come to a close and it is the perfect time to reflect on how the past year went. Personally, I had a year that challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone to become a better naturalist. Here are some of the things I did in 2014 in regards to EE:

 -Completed an unpaid internship at an area nature center
 -Graduated from college to earn my B.S.
 -Got First Aid and CPR certified
 -Spent the summer working as a naturalist at the nature center I interned at
 -Worked as a naturalist at a residential ELC

 -Took classes towards my Graduate Certificate in Environmental Education

 -Attended a state naturalist conference
 -Started this blog

I would like to think that I had a pretty successful year. At the very least, it certainly kept me busy! From what I've learned during my adventures of 2014 is that gaining practical experience is key. Make it a priority going into the New Year to try new things and to put yourself in situations that are going to allow you to grow both personally and professionally. Don't be afraid to network and make those important personal connections with fellow naturalists. Who knows, those connections could come in handy and help you land the position you are looking for down the road!

In all, 2014 was one heck of a year. I am really proud of all that I have accomplished so far and I am even more excited what's left to come (including some awesome ideas for this blog!). I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and I look forward to the adventures that are to be had in 2015!

The Best,
eeNatureGuy

Introducing Quick Hits

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” -Saul Bellow

Sometime inspiration hits during the strangest of times. I was struggling to sleep last night and as I mulled around the Internet I read an article about how sometimes the best blog posts are ones that take the least time to write. After a decent bit of rest, I woke up and thought, why not make a new post series based around that idea. So an idea was born: Quick Hits.

The concept is simple: I write a blog post in 10 minutes and give myself 5 minutes to edit (so it isn't total crap) and we'll go from there. For the start, as I develop a readership, I'm planning on picking a topic that interest me. As I go on though, I want to start taking ideas that you, the reader, choose. It can come from a Tweet on my Twitter account (@eenatureguy) or from a comment on a blog. If this is able to take off, I might make a strawpoll on the side of the blog and make this a routine occurrence. Whatever happens, I'm really excited to challenge myself and I have a feeling that this could be the start of a really fun way to blog. So give me ideas of what to write about, you guys are the ones in the driver seat for this one!