“I grew up always volunteering and doing something, either through church, or through the dance studio because I did ballet growing up. So, either through various like groups in school, I was homeschooled so we did a lot of community service projects because we could work during the day and volunteer during the day, outside of school. We worked at Food Banks a lot and we did like community gardens and we’d make a lot of homeless bags which we’d go to Houston and hand them out or donate them to homeless shelters. That’s always been a big part of my life and when I moved up here, I sort of tried to jump into a few different things. I joined the Young Professionals group and I joined the gym and a few other things. I was on the Cajun Fest committee for Downtown Development and so that was a lot of fun. And just ways to meet people outside of work, because it’s a really small staff at the museum.”
“I have run three half marathons and one full marathon. I kind of fell out of running during the pandemic, I just didn’t have the energy to keep up with that training and stuff, but it’s really fun. I started doing it in grad school with my friends. We usually try to run a race together every year. It hasn’t really happened quite as much lately but we’re hoping to have one next year in 2022, probably a half marathon. I’m a very slow runner, I definitely don’t run for speed or anything like that but the full marathon was really fun experience, I ran the Chevron Houston Marathon right after Hurricane Harvey hit, and we’re all either from Houston or we’ve lived in Houston and so it was really kind of emotional for us to to do that after the hurricane because one of my friends, his apartment was flooded. My parents had to evacuate and come stay with me so we had five people and two dogs in a one bedroom apartment for like a week, and then my other friend, her parents, their house almost flooded the whole neighborhood flooded in the water stopped at their driveway, and they left on a boat, so it was really cool for us to run that after the hurricane, you know. I like the challenge. I like having a goal sort of outside of work. I’ve always been very goal oriented, but I struggle sometimes having those goals set outside of work. So, a race, some sort of physical challenge is always good, but I get outside, take a break. I listen to my podcasts or whatever and so it’s just like a good way to get away and just take a break, really.” – Madeleine Calcote
