It has been a little over a year since I graduated from SHERP (NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program). I'm not really one for anniversaries but this year has had such unexpected outcomes that it seems worth sharing, particularly with anyone struggling in post-grad purgatory.

The most striking feature of my first year in the real world is the difference between how I felt at six months and how I feel now. In the last few months I spoke with two people on opposite ends of the journalism spectrum: a freelancer with a solid, successful career and an undergraduate who is looking toward a possible future in science journalism. Somehow, in the course of these conversations, these two people both described my current career as The Dream. That helped give me some perspective and, yeah, I'm not doing too shabbily.

Where I Am (aka The Dream)
Right now I am part-time at a TV station and part-time freelance. For many journalists, this split is ideal because it gives you security and freedom at the same time. I have also somehow managed to get my hands on a bunch of freelance jobs where I'm assigned stories, so I don't have to pitch unless I really want to. No complaints there. 

Honestly, I never wanted to be a freelancer but now I will probably be doing it full-time because it means I can make good money doing work that I enjoy. Although I do miss having a work life separate from everything else, the upside is that I'm (finally) financially secure enough to move to San Francisco and take my bills off my parents' plate (more later about my great parents).

Where I Was
Immediately after graduation, I moved home. There wasn't much of a plan here, I just desperately needed to get out of New York City. Vaguely, I figured I would be home for a couple months until I got a staff job somewhere in California (I had been applying for jobs since November). In the meantime, I got to do some life cleaning. I sorted through old stuff in my childhood home and finished any leftover work I had from school. I even published something (for free) on Huffington Post. It was little progress but I had just graduated and didn't feel any need to rush.

By March I had started volunteering at my local PBS station because I had connected with an amazing person there at the National Association of Science Writers 2012 conference. I also began freelancing with a new lifestyle website, which hired me after rejecting me for a staff editor position. (I was a little miffed at the time but now I know they were right.) It was three months out and I was making basically no money. Lucky for me, I have the most supportive parents ever and I was living at home for free without having to pay any student loans. Still, the feeling that I was sucking at life was slowly creeping up on me.

I tried to avoid obsessive calendar watching but June hit and I was freaking out. I was six months post-graduation. I had added on one more freelance contract via one of my generous SHERP classmates and...that's it. After applying for hundreds of jobs, I had done only a handful of phone interviews to no avail. I was writing a bit and had fun at my TV internship but, overall, my career was lagging far behind expectations. I was angry and frustrated and sad and stressed. Basically, I was getting ready to apply for a barista job (because I've heard those are legitimately great).

So how did I get from that to The Dream?
Three things deserve the majority of the credit for my progress since June: great connections, a lot of luck, and a family that is able and willing to give me their unwavering support.* 

I eventually got four different contracts through connections I made in graduate school --- five if you count the fact that I went to the SciWri conference because of SHERP (the TV station hired me in July). 

People probably think it's a cop-out to credit luck with anything but I really have no way of explaining some of the opportunities I've gotten. A rural public media station had the money to hire me. My first freelance contract (with that lifestyle website that semi-rejected me) has become one of my favorite and most consistent jobs. A newspaper contacted me to do work for them, even though I had never heard of them. That's pretty darn lucky.

Again, I really cannot stress enough how important my support group has been. I got to go to school for free. And live at home. For. Free. Plus, I was completely comfortable disclosing my frustrations to my friends and family and they had the faith in me that I often lacked. All of that made a huge difference. 

My Takeaway
The lesson I would most like to pass on to other struggling, recent grads is to share their hardships. I don't mean whining or venting. Just be honest. I still can't believe the number of completely functional adults who told me about how they lived at home after school, after they were married, or after being laid off. It kept me (mostly) sane to know that a lot of people have a hard time successfully moving on after school.

Wow, sorry this was so long and overly personal. I just wanted to get it out there because it's the kind of thing Six-Month Me would have really appreciated. Now Year(ish) Me is off to do some journalism.


*I also want to give a shout-out to my friends who actually responded to my shameful pleas for companionship. They drove for hours to hang out with me. Now, I hope that as they all become doctors and artists and lawyers (yes, my friends are super impressive like this), I can return the favor.

Apologies for the unintentional hiatus. I'm interning 30+ hours a week (at Women's Health Magazine), while also going to school, and surviving my first NYC heat wave. Now that I've also gotten through my requisite bi-yearly cold, I should be back to blogging!

Anthropology is the study of humans. At UC San Diego I majored in biological anthropology (also called physical anthropology) which, in short, is the study of human evolution and primates. There is also sociocultural anthropology (study of human society and culture) and paleontology (using a whip to recover ancient artifacts while dodging poisoned arrows and giant, oddly-spherical boulders).

The following is a list of 5 things anyone interested in human evolution should know:

1. Evolution is not about perfection. There is no end goal. Just because one species has taken on more mutations than another or seems more complex doesn't mean it's evolutionarily superior. Oftentimes a specific trait is advantageous at one point in time, then hurtful at another (humans' excellent ability to store calories for example). Sometimes species seem to lose some of their complexity as they evolve (consider "blind" cavefish). All in all, evolution is not interchangeable with a time line from worst to best.

2. There is no such thing as The Missing Link. Contrary to the drawing on your witty t-shirt, the evolution of humans does not go 1) monkey 2) monkey/man thing 3) caveman 4) us. There aren't clear steps, evolution is gradual. For that reason we will never find that glorious half-ape, half-human creature that proves evolution to everyone. If you really want to hold on to your missing link, consider every individual hominin a missing link because that's as close as your going to get.

3. "Survival of the fittest" is a ridiculous saying.  It's redundant. "Fitness" in evolution means the ability of an organism to survive and pass on its genes. Thus, this saying means "survival of an organism that is the best at surviving." (Also, my mom would never let me hear the end of it if I didn't take this opportunity to mention that, if you say "ATM machine," you are saying "Automatic Teller Machine machine.")

4. It is pronounced NeanderTAL, not NeanderTHAL. I see that there is a "th" but it's a German word so it's pronounced like "t" is pronounced in English. Yes, I'm being an anthro-snob but if you want to speak Anthropologist, there you have it.

5. Chimps are not monkeys, neither are gorillas. I know this is annoying to most people but it's an important distinction. Are you a monkey? I didn't think so (but if you are, give me a call because I would love to interview a monkey that reads). It's like believing a killer whale is actually a whale -- not the worst thing in the world but a little irritating. Need help telling the difference? Apes (us, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, siamangs) don't have tails, whereas most monkeys do.

As a result of my current journalism crash course, I have become semi-obsessed with the idea of objectivity in the media. I believe, like most journalists, that we should do our best to give accurate and fair information. For that reason, I also believe we should make it clear that journalists are not objective, all-knowing pseudo-humans.

Journalists are people too and people are always biased in some way. This should be made more clear for the sake of our readers. For their part, our audience should also make an effort to recognize that everything they read goes through a person (if not multiple people) before it gets to them.

Even when we do our best to be objective, every choice we make -- from what sources we contact, to what quotes we choose -- is affected by our personal preferences.

So, in an effort to put my money where my mouth is, here are some of my personal science-related biases:

I know science is not the same as truth
Scientists (most of them) know this too. That being said, science is also not simple guesswork. The vast majority of scientists put a lot of care into their work and consult time-tested scientific knowledge. Still, sometimes science is wrong. Really coming to terms with this can be uncomfortable but everyone should do it.

I believe in evolution
I was a biological anthropology major in undergraduate. That means I studied human evolution. I believe in the overall Theory of Evolution. However, I also believe that there is a lot of uncertainty in evolutionary science (as in all science) and that it needs to be constantly questioned and readjusted in order for it to improve. If you don't believe me, Google "epigenetics." It was quite a surprise for many hard-core evolutionists.

I believe people are causing climate change
The human race has created truly incredible things over the span of its existence. Much of the time, I can't even wrap my head around how we've gotten where we are. That being said, anyone who sees what we've made should also be able to recognize the grand effect we've have on our planet. Again, like with evolution, there is still a lot of work to be done before we fully understand what's happening to the climate. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of time in this case and should be putting some serious work into reducing our negative impact on the environment.

I have a serious soft spot for nature
I love plants and animals (but, no, I'm not a vegetarian). The smell of flowers, the unintentional smile of a dog, and the crackle of pine needles beneath my feet all give me immense pleasure. I would choose a park over a shopping mall any day. That being said, I am beginning to accept that one way for us to protect nature is by moving closer together into cities. I don't like it, but it's true.

I support gay rights
The topic of gay rights goes far beyond the realm of science. Regardless of the context, I firmly believe that people should never be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. I can only hope that our civilization will soon realize how cruel they are being by stigmatizing homosexuality.

If you have any opinions on this topic, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear other people's thoughts about bias in journalism.

Since you are considerate enough to be reading my blog, I'll explain the title to you.

If you're not a journalist, you should know that "TK" means "to come" in journalist jargon. We write this in our drafts as a placeholder for something that we are expecting -- or delusionally determined -- to have in later versions of our story.

An example might be: [TK: quote from Prof. Brown explaining how he feels about this blog.]

I've been told that the misspelling stems from old editing practices. It is said that journalists wanted to make sure that all of the TK's would be removed from their stories before they went to print, so they spelled it "tokum" in order to catch the eye of those human spellcheckers commonly known as editors. (Not that editors are merely human spellcheckers.)

For those of you who have yet to catch the wordplay, "TK" are also my initials.

See what I did there now? Yeah, I'm pretty impressed with myself too.