What are you going to do with that?

I hear that question a lot. Mostly because people don't actually understand what anthropology is. If they truly understood what I study, the question wouldn't be so annoying because it would be an informed question from someone who trusts that I have legit career path possibilities, not a followup question in an effort to mask ignorance. Like when people ask me where I'm from and I say Idaho, and then they ask what part and I say Coeur d'Alene, and then they nod like they know and kinda squint and ask if that's near Blackfoot, because they have cousins in Blackfoot. Nope. Idaho knowledge fail.

Let me inform the curious and give you something else to ask me whenever you see me for the next year whether this stays current news or not. I want to work for these guys. They have an internship I want to try for. I don't know anything about radio broadcasting, but I'm a smart kid; I can learn. My ultimate goal is not to love the actual studio production aspect, but to find stories and write shows and interview people.

I first heard about This American Life from a class. I rediscovered this nugget of a public radio show this last semester and spent a lot of time listening to past shows while I worked at the museum on a project that didn't often need brain power. I love a good story, and these shows are all about good stories. Not just good stories, but good stories with a point. There's always a "so what?" to the stories, and the anthropologist inside me glories in the discovery of the "so what?" and "why does that matter?" (Ironically, I discovered what I wanted for Christmas, these three days after Christmas: the Super Limited Edition This American Life DVD Set/Book, or just the first or second season of the TV show. Lucky for me, I have a birthday coming up! hint, hint)

If I did score an internship, it wouldn't happen for a year, as in January 2011. The internships run Jan-June and July-Dec in NYC, and they're paid. I could try for the July one next summer, but I plan to be out of the country most of that month.

In the meantime....I'll find something else to do. Don't ask me what, because I don't know.