Before the trip, my dad gave me some great advice about creating an elevator speech for myself. If the CEO of your company got on the same elevator as you, what would you say in that short ride to convince him that you are worth remembering. I don’t have a CEO but I plan to find plenty of people who I would like to leave with a good impression. So here’s the first draft of my elevator speech about this hitchhiking trip across the country:
I have two things I am concentrating on during this journey. I’m checking out grad schools with evolutionary biology programs in case it doesn’t work out with my first choice at the University of Amsterdam. I’m also trying to move into science writing so I’m interviewing scientists across the country about their research. I’m going to concentrate on the biological sciences because that’s my passion and I have a good grasp of the basics. However, I’ll talk to anyone doing interesting work because I love learning about how the universe works from the quarks to the superclusters.
That’s short but it’s a good start. I leave out my other main motivation: I want to meet interesting people across the country to find how they make their money, fall in love, spend their time and work towards their dreams. For some reason, saying this out loud usually sounds a little silly so I’ll just keep it to myself and be happy when it happens.
The Joy of Lex 
Too many “I”s in the elevator speech…perhaps that provides a piece of useful information in itself. jk jk, nr, nr.
The elevator speech isn’t just to make you memorable, it’s to pitch an idea or a concept. If you meet a professor who’s involved in some great research, why should he take some of his precious time to talk with you?
Remember, everybody listens to the same radio station, WII-FM. What’s in it for me? We move forward by helping others move forward. We all get to define “forward” for ourselves. Life is good.