A TIME TO LOOK BACK AND A TIME TO LOOK FORWARD
By Penny Patterson
January is a time to reflect on and look back on the many events of 2024 and ponder some New Year’s resolutions for 2025.
Looking back on 2024, HGS has had an excellent year with numerous successful technical meetings and social events. Reviewing HGS’s 2024 calendar reveals that over the year, HGS held 23 Dinner and Luncheon technical meetings, 16 social events, 5 Continuing Education Courses, 5 Educational Outreach Programs for our budding geoscientists, 2 conferences, and 1 collaborative HGS-GSH symposium. These events provided integral platforms for exchanging new and evolving technologies, various networking opportunities, and, of course, many occasions to see friends and develop new friendships within our geoscience community. All these HGS events could not have been possible without the help of HGS members, volunteers, and staff, as well as financial contributions to HGS. I sincerely thank everyone for their support of HGS over this past year. I extend a sincere thanks to the HGS Board Members who have helped HGS move forward on its mission statement and its financial goals. I also give a special thank you to Andrea Peoples, HGS’s Office Manager, who has provided critical assistance in organizing and hosting these HGS events. In addition, HGS is extremely thankful for the contribution to HGS that has helped support HGS’s numerous meetings and events. We would like to recognize all sponsors and donors for their contribution in 2024 by highlighting them on our HGS Sponsorship page.
Looking forward to 2025 and pondering New Year’s resolutions, my thoughts came from a brief talk I gave in September at HGS’s Student Expo. The title of my talk was “Engage, Explore, and Excel.” This talk was intended to provide three guiding principles to help students during their job interviews with company representatives at the Student Expo and continue guiding them as they move along their career paths.
This talk's three guiding principles or themes may apply to 2025 New Year’s Resolutions to “Engage, Explore, and Excel”. The first theme of “Engage” is to encourage everyone to engage in discussions with people that you meet along your career path, whether it is during your first job interview or during the course of your career as you attend geoscience conventions or social gatherings. This brings me to a memorable event that occurred early in my career. A few friends invited me to join them at a multi-company holiday party. I had just moved to Houston, so I was hesitant to join them, but I did. When I walked through the event's door, I saw hundreds of people and did not know anyone! My friends quickly disappeared into the crowd, and I was left alone! Well, I thought: “No guts – no glory.” I walked up to a small group of total strangers and introduced myself, and I was soon included in the conversation. I continued to meet new people throughout the evening and was astounded by how much I learned from the various conversations and how gracious and inclusive everyone was. So, this New Year’s resolution is: Do not be a wallflower and let opportunities pass by you. Boldly, attend meetings and social gatherings and engage in meeting new-found acquaintances. HGS has numerous opportunities to engage with fellow geoscientists and grow your friendships.
The second theme,”Explore,” is to encourage everyone to use their time exploring new ideas, new concepts, new areas of research, etc. Whenever you gather in meetings or social events, use this opportunity to be curious, ask questions, and continue to research new fields of disciplines, ideas, technologies, and concepts bashing existing paradigms. The field of geoscience is continuously growing and advancing with new insights that we are obtaining from various directions, such as the development and expansion of CCUS projects and new technologies, such as AI’s machine learning tools, that can be utilized in numerous geoscience projects. So, this New Year, resolve to “Be curious” and explore areas outside your daily work. HGS has numerous opportunities to engage with fellow geoscientists and grow your knowledge.
The third theme, “Excel,” is to encourage everyone to do well at their work and their home life. If you enjoy your work and your home activities, then the products of your hard work will be self-evident to your employer, clients, family, and friends. Working on a project and putting your best effort into every aspect of your work is extremely rewarding. If, however, things are not as much fun as you would like, then you might want to reflect on the situation at hand, i.e., is there something that you can do to change the course, or is there something that piques your interest more than your current position? So, this New Year’s resolution is: Excel in everything you do at work and home. HGS has numerous opportunities to engage with fellow geoscientists and grow your excellence.
In summary, HGS has many opportunities to “Engage, Explore, and Excel.” Be sure to use every moment available to you to get involved, grow in friendships, knowledge, and excellence, and, in turn, contribute to our geoscience community.
I will close with a quote from Edward Everett Hale: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is a success.” Let’s come together and make HGS a success!
Best wishes to all in 2025!
I look forward to seeing you at HGS’s events in 2025!
Penny Patterson