Well, I just took a test. You know the type, they're on Facebook and they tell you what character in a movie you are or what your mental age is. Let's face it, they're fun and we get a good laugh from them. The one I took tonight was called: "What kind of Archaeologist are you?" Right up my alley! I figured it would come back with Lara Croft or Indiana Jones. Instead, it said I was a Jedi Archaeologist. Have to admit that was different. Then I started thinking about when I first wanted to BE an archaeologist. Well, actually, I wanted to be a paleontologist. I loved dinosaurs! I was about 5 or 6 years old. I would look for fossils everywhere. From checking out the shale rocks and other rocks in and around a river bed, to digging little holes and searching for them there. I was a true student of the dinosaur.
By the time I turned 8, I had discovered my true love, archaeology! Yep! Back to the rocks and digging but this time with a new emphasis. I was searching for the relics of humanity. Arrow heads, musket balls, bones, whatever! I was looking for it. What is interesting about my little endeavors is how my thoughts and ideals changed through time. As I grew older and entered my teens, I found myself more interested in the buildings, foundations, and tools (so to speak) of the people who had lived in the area before me. I found the old railroad tracks that led from my town to neighboring communities to be fascinating. Men had worked hard clearing the the path, cutting down trees, sawing the wood into railroad ties, placing them and building the tracks. Yet, in just a short time, the rail service would be gone and the tracks were taken over by nature. Every so often though I would find a tie, look at it and wonder who had laid it. There was a sadness to it. A loss of progress which was swallowed up by the desire for private automobiles. Then one day I was reading my grandmother's (Cecile Peak's) diary from 1928 and she wrote of my grandfather (Ivan Peak) going up to the lumber camps and hauling wood to the mills and railroad ties to town. Can you even imagine my excitement of discovering this one little unobtrusive fact which brought those railroad ties, my grandfather, and myself together. It was a moment of joy, self-discovery, and love for those ties may have been handled by my grandfather whom I adored and miss deeply.
There were other times when I would walk into the woods or go on dirt roads and find stone fences. I would study their structure and follow them, all the while wondering who had built them and what had happened to them. Even today, I find myself going off the beaten path to look for places which have been forgotten or lost. Not for glory or fortune, but so the people who had lived and loved there, the fences, the ruins of a house, a mound of shells, or the railroad tie would come to life one more time and bring the role of humanity back into the space which had been lost. Yes, archaeology was what I wanted. Yet, I never went into the field. Stupid me listened to those who said you had to find a good job. Now, I say to all who ask me, "Follow your dream, for that is where you will be happiest. Don't listen to the naysayers, think for yourself and be yourself." I studied history, humanities, American studies as an older student. I love what I am working toward now. I've fulfilled two dreams and am working toward others. Follow the dream....archaeology, history, humanities, literature, music, whatever. There will be good and bad, but if you really want something go for it, it's your dream...Jedi Archaeologist....Hahahahaha... not too far off the track.
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