When I was about eight years old, I went to a museum that had a mock dig set up. They gave us trowels and brushes and let us dig up fake dinosaur bones. That same year, my teacher’s son came to speak to our class. He was an archaeologist in South America, and I realized that that was what I wanted to be when I grew up. And that never really changed.

I’m really sorry to hear that you weren’t able to take archaeology. It’s an amazing field.