I took a walk in the woods this morning and the recent wet spell we've had has sprouted some amazing mushrooms.
During college I found plant biology painfully boring but the mushrooms.... the colors, the strange reproductive cycles, their romantic ephemerality...
A mycology course (maybe a medical mycology elective?) and a taxonomy course are definitely on my bucket list. I so wished that I could identify the different species on my hike today. Is it really nerdy that I wish I were a fungi taxonomist?
Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit, was also a bright naturalist. She spent years studying fungi reproduction and illustrating mushrooms in England. Her scientific drawings are stilled used by mycologists to identify different species.
It is definitely nerdy to want to be a fungi taxonomist, but there's nothing wrong at all about being nerdy. I choose to fully embrace all my own nerdiness.
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