Episode 49: Geosciences Specials - Molly, BSc Geology and Physical Geography

Episode 49 brings us to Molly, who shares her insight on the excitement of knowledge, working behind the scenes and field trip community. 

Each episode is a snapshot, a moment, a sneak inside the minds of our graduates. As the world emerges from pandemic paralysis, are our Class of 2021 feeling inspired or inhibited, glad or gloomy, chaotic or calm?

Welcome to Season 2, a little bit of the same but quite a lot different. Subscribe now and find out what everyone is up to and how they feel about life, the last 12 months and future plans.

All opinions expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Edinburgh. 

Multi Story Edinburgh has been created and produced by the Alumni Relations team at the University of Edinburgh. If you are interested in telling your story, please get in touch and let's talk.

Music: Since When by Mise Darling from freemusicarchive.org 
Artwork: Vector created by pch.vector from www.freepik.com

Transcript

[Theme music] 

Sonia  0:09  This is a snapshot, a moment, a sneak inside the minds of our graduates. This is season two, Class of 2021. A little bit of the same, but quite a lot different.

Molly  0:23  My name is Molly, I'm a graduate, I've just finished this year. I have a master's in Geology and Physical Geography. I don't know if I do feel like a graduate. It's a sort of weird feeling where I still feel like tied to the uni in so many ways and I don't quite feel like I'm at the other end yet. Despite the sort of ceremonies and everything we've had, it's just, I don't know, it just feels like I'm still there, I guess. It's, it's, it's bizarre. I'm currently a receptionist for a Global Investments company. It's like, I don't know, it's not where I thought I'd be after I finished uni, but I'm enjoying it so far. I got a voucher today for all my hard work that I've been doing, so that was a nice surprise going in. I did a long kind of stint in hospitality before that and I left that with the intention of finding a graduate job or something else to kind of keep me tied over until I can find a sort of position in my field, I guess. I think having done the extra year to do the Masters, it can be a little disappointing not to come out with something straight away. I'm still like, quite young and I don't necessarily need to jump straight into like, a career-- a nine to five, something like that. Just, yeah, and I think just kind of being the age round about like 22/23, where everyone you sort of see on social media is just kind of at different stages of their life. They're like, buying houses, they're like getting their, their big, like big people jobs, and I'm just kind of somewhere in the middle, I guess. It's not a bad thing because I like, I like what I'm doing at the moment and there's still time for everything to kind of fall into place, you just kind of have to keep telling yourself that as long as-- you will do it, you'll, you'll get somewhere. 

I did a fifth year of my undergraduate degree. So I came out with an integrated Master's at the other end. Instead of like a BSc in Geology, I, I now have a Master of Earth Science, which sounds like so cool like, I'm like the avatar or something. Part of the reason I stayed on was because, obviously, last year with all the, you know, pandemic and everything going on, there was so much uncertainty, it wasn't looking good. And it was something I wanted to do, I always kind of wanted a masters. So to have the option to stay on and do an extra year was really good. It was interesting. It was completely different to my other four years. But it also wasn't, it was kind of the same. And it feels weird that I just kind of did an extra year of the same thing I was doing and now I have a master's degree. I can't quite wrap my head around it. It's, it's a bit bizarre. So when I first applied, I applied to the five years and come out with a Master's at the other end. I think that Molly going in was very kind of optimistic and just kind of quite buzzing. And it's not that I'm not that now, but I'm definitely a completely different person to who I was like five years ago. I mean, it's not uncommon, but like, I think it's kind of nice, I've ended up despite everything in the same position I wanted to be in, so I feel like me five years ago would be really proud of where I am now. I was doing something I did because I wanted to study it. And I hadn't to be honest really thought about what positions I was going to come out with at the end. I was going in excited and wanting to learn all this stuff and, and it was, it was so cool. Like in first year just like being there experiencing uni. It's something you get kind of used to and it's all the same and sometimes you just have to take a step back and think like wow, I'm in university. This is like, this is like still happened and it's crazy. I'm lucky to be here. Now at the other end it just feels like yeah, I did that.

So for my dissertation in fourth year, I did a project on storing carbon in the context of like volcanic rocks. A place in Iceland that's doing that because obviously they've got like a lot of kind of active volcanism, they get it to the right temperature, they just kind of fire the carbon in there, and it stays there. And I think that would be so cool to do. There's a lot of potential for carbon storage in volcanic rocks that's just not fully explored yet. And maybe it would be really nice if I could help with that and have my name on like a paper being known for, for doing something like saving the planet but not in a way that many people would think about it, I suppose. Would be nice to kind of make, make a change and be, be part of it, but not like, not like the front lines of the environment. But something more sort of behind the scenes, I guess. I moved home to be with my parents for the quarantine, because I only live like 40 minutes away from Edinburgh. I just thought it would be nice to kind of be in the sort of family home and things like that. At that time, I wasn't sure what was happening, I knew it was gonna stay on and that was fine, but I didn't know where I was going to be. The people I was living with at the time, I think they had different plans to what I had anticipated. So I ended up moving all my things out my flat and living at home in a while. And I started the course in September and then I spoke to my current flatmate and we were like, oh, we miss Edinburgh, let's, let's come back. So we moved in October, and it was the ninth of October and I know that because that was when the second lockdown started. It was sort of hard to stay motivated, when everything's done at home, and definitely missed out on a few things. And of course, the fieldwork aspect of like, all these kind of trips, we didn't have that either. And it was-- I definitely missed it. It's something that I think a lot of degree programmes don't necessarily get. But when it's something that you're used to, and you're away with all these people and you're, you're having memories, and you're doing things and you're going places and you're having all these experiences together, it's something that I just feel like can really bring you together, regardless of whether you spoke to them outside of field trips. You're going to speak to them, they're going to be like the only people you're with for like the week and it's just, it's-- I really, really missed out over the past two years. The place where we stayed, up in the Highlands and I'm sure if you ask any of the geology department, they'll, they'll say this too - that's went up for sale and that's really kind of upsetting because it's-- there's so many memories, like every year group who's been on [unintelligible] has stayed there. And we were joking about like, oh, what if we all just chip in and buy it and like have another cottage party and stuff like that. Had we had gone to Cyprus this year or Tenerife, this year, I don't know if it would have been the same. It's always one of these things like, it's-- you're there and it's one thing and then we look back on it, it's another one. I actually met my, my partner on the course as well. So like we'd been like mapping partners a few times and been on field trips together. So I guess I always kind of get to recreate that with him, which is nice.

Sonia  8:18  We also asked our graduates to share a place, somewhere special, somewhere we can get together when all this is finished.

Molly  8:30 So I had a wee think about this and I think, honestly, there's this really nice steak house in Madeira [laughs]. It's really nice, the food's really good. They've got like-- that, that whole like Island is just so stunning. Everything about it from the geology, to the people who are just so friendly, to the food, the everything. The volcanics there are just really interesting. There's like big lava caves and everything like that. And on your, your time off on your holidays to be somewhere that you can learn things and apply the things that you've already learned just through kind of context and what you see, especially in geology, like you'd never stop looking at the landscape, whether it's in like the movies, like TV shows, if something's in the background, your attentions automatically drawn to it and you're going to try and work out what's going on. And it was the same there and it was just kind of nice to apply it but not, not being like forced to do it like on a field trip because you have to but just to take the time and know that you know about it. I think it's typically like a sort of Golden Oldies type, holiday destination. I don't think it like fits the stereotype. It's fantastic. I went there on a family holiday once. And it was because we'd watched like an episode of Travel Man and I was like that sounds kind of cool. We went there in June and it was, it was great. It wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, there was just beautiful views out to sea and, and it was, it was lovely. I really feel that sort of 2019 was peak me. I was just in a really good place after a lot of crap that I just had to go through before. Was just feeling really good about myself and I just-- it was a chance to just let go and be with my family and, and, and it was just really nice. It was just really nice.

Sonia  10:31  Thank you for listening. Join us next time for another graduate and another story.

Kirsten 10:43  You're not on your own when it comes to planning for your future. Your University of Edinburgh community is here to support you and this includes ongoing support for graduates from the Careers Service. Why not take a look at our website to find out more about how we can support you get the future you want. Go to ed.ac.uk/careers to get started.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai