Reflection on 2019

Hey all! Hope you all had a fantastic 2019! I apologize for not posting nearly as much as I said I would, but life gets busy! I will try to make more of an effort to share more on here in 2020. I've decided to share a little bit of my achievements and failures over the last year, it was overall a great year! So with that here's some of what has all gone on in 2019 (in no particular order):

1. Completed two more semesters of graduate school

2. Gave my first oral presentation at the Society for American Archaeology conference in Albuquerque, NM

3. Taught myself a whole bunch of coding to be able to analyze DNA

4. Decided to pursue a Bioinformatics certificate due to all the coding I've learned

5. Helped with numerous research projects

6. Contributed to some forensic cases

7. Presented a business idea three times (including at the historic Wilma theater in Missoula, MT) and won some prize money from one of the presentations

8. Multiple grants/fellowships rejections

9. But finally won a scholarship in December 2019!

10. Got an internship at a startup biotech company as the Junior Research Scientist

11. Had some great adventures with friends including checking out Petrogylph National Monument, National Bison Range, camping, swimming at Lake Como, fly fishing, and skiing!

12. Got to catch up with old friends!

13. Spent more time with family!

It was a fantastic 2019 and I look forward to many more achievements and failures in 2020! I want to thank all my family, friends, advisers, colleagues, etc. for their support and contributions to many of these achievements and adventures! I wish the best for you all in 2020!

Also, feel free to comment on some ideas I can use this blog for! Want a better idea of what I do for research? I can do a blog post on it. Want to know what some news article is about that is showcasing some new genetic find or hominin discovery? I can write my opinion on it. Basically, let me know if there is anything you'd like to see me write about on here!