St Stephen's Cemetery Reaction

St Stephen's Anglican Church & Cemetery:ToadHollowPhoto 

     For the past week and a half or so, in my Archaeology of Death course, we were given an assignment requiring the use of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. The assignment required the analysis of a fair amount of data gathered from the St Stephen's Cemetery, and an interpretation of that data. When first receiving the database, I did not at all anticipate the reaction I would have towards the information. It was easy enough reading about plot style and monuments, but then came the information regarding age at death and cause of death. Reading about t children and young adults whose lives were cut short made the assignment much more real and personal. The notes section and cause of death sections in the database really made the information seem much more than just information; it gave each member who was deceased, life.
     I do have to say that working with the Excel program itself was extremely confusing and difficult to manipulate (I didn't have Access on my computer, therefore I used Excel solely). After many visits to google and several colourful words getting thrown around, I managed to complete the assignment. My biggest issue would be that the organization and layout of the data after it was exported to Excel from Access was extremely messy and difficult to manipulate efficiently. I ended up opening a clean Excel spreadsheet and choosing specifically which information I wanted to work with and copying and pasting it to the new spreadsheet. Although this was extremely time consuming, it was a lot more organized and linear use of the information given in the original database.

A little tid-bit about myself

      Hi! Let's start this off with me telling the entirety of the internet a little bit about myself. My name is Kelsey, I am an Anthropology student at the University of Victoria. Although B.C is not my home, it definitely has grown on me. Two years ago, I moved here from the East Coast of Canada. When I say East Coast, I don't mean Ontario or Quebec, I'm talking about growing up in the countrysides of Cape Breton Island, living in small fishing communities over in PEI, and then topping it all off with settling in the most redneck part of New Brunswick, way back in the sticks.

Marble Mountain, Cape Breton (2010)

     I decided to move B.C for school, never having set foot on Uvic's campus beforehand, after talking to a representative for the Anthro department on the phone. Being spontaneous, naive and whatnot, I jumped on the opportunity to experience something new. After two years here, I still get poked at for sounding like a pirate with my "hard R's", and I do enjoy listening to some Matt Andersen (seriously, go listen to him right now), and The Rankin Family now and again, but I definitely do not regret coming here. I would say that is what sparked my interest regarding the field of Anthropology and Archaeology; having the chance to experience something new and unknown. Ever since I could remember I have been watching programs on the History channel about the Egyptians, fascinated and in awe over the ruins of Angkor, and completely enveloped years ago when my old history teachers would talk about the Battle of Thermopylae. Our history is so confusing, expansive, and amazing, and although I really do not have a clue career-wise where my life is headed, all I can hope is that I end up doing something to uncover a bit of it.