Transcript

Alan Chausse:

So like you’re the first person I’ve talked to since Sunday.

So I’m doing a forestry internship with the Bashegan Company. What I do right now is a lot of forest inventory. So plots and things like that. So yeah it’s been really fun. Definitely. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better.

So my name is Alan, and I am a Forestry major at the University of Maine. I’m from Ewing, New Jersey, which is quite different from here. And this is my life in the Pines. Literally.

Coming to Maine has been quite an experience. I’ve had such a great time in Maine. My aunt knows a family friend who went to UMaine. He is a forester. He worked for the state of Maine as well, so he told me about UMaine and all the opportunities and all the great people really convinced me that this was the place for me.

I plan on becoming a forester of some type. I’ve always loved like spending time outside and hiking and things like that. So I knew that I didn’t really want to work in an office for the rest of my career. And being in Maine. Oh man I love Maine. I don’t really want to leave. I kind of want to stay.

Yeah I love the cooler weather so this is really great for me. Watching the seasons change is great. I love fall. Fall is my favorite season, especially when the leaves are still on the trees. You know there’s something to look forward to with every season.

Well living on campus has been—it’s been great because I had like built-in friends. You know, they’re my support system. I go home and like tell them about my day and whatever is bothering me and things like that. My favorite part about living on campus and specifically Hart Hall is that everything is really close.

I have a class at—at least one class every day so I gotta go to class. I try to go to class. It’s good to go to class. Go to class. Hopefully I usually will have time for some fun things so either play guitar or go rock climbing.

Another, like, big part of my UMaine experience is music. I really love playing guitar. First semester, I played a lot of guitar with my friends. I’m also like in a band outside of school. We play like folk and bluegrass music so that’s really, that’s a lot of fun.

I think being a student is a really rewarding experience. Sometimes it’s hard, you know, being away from my parents and my family and everybody but it’s really good to push boundaries and things like that. I’ve done things like fly in a helicopter. Like that’s not something that I I would be doing. Because I’m kind of afraid of heights.

But I feel like the Forestry program at the University of Maine has been so supportive and I’ve met a lot of great professors who really introduced me to what forestry actually is and I’ve learned a lot of knowledge that hopefully will help me in my career.

The people I’ve met—like that’s the most important part of this experience for me. I’ve interacted with people that come from places really far away from where I grew up, and they’ve had different experiences and those experiences are really valuable. So like yeah. Ooo! Almost slipped. So yeah it’s really the community is supportive and welcoming. They’re like my family. They’re my family away from home. You know?

I don’t know how to stop it.

I learned how much I love trees. I thought I loved trees a lot then I came to UMaine and I was like wow I really love trees.