Daily Inspiration: Meet Rachael Rosenstein

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachael Rosenstein.

Hi Rachael, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I suppose I’ll start at the beginning! I was born in Connecticut to a family which consists of my mom, dad, and sister who is one year older than me. We lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with a few apple trees and a hill in the backyard with a small forest perfect for sledding and playing in the fall leaves. When I was in fourth grade, my dad’s job as a nuclear engineer took us to a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA where I spent the remainder of my childhood. Our yard this time was small; however, it led to an extensive wooded area in which I spent many afternoons and weekends exploring. It was there that my interest in nature and photography truly began.

I decided to attend college at the University of Delaware and earned my B.A. in Environmental Studies with minors in Public Policy and Spanish. I was never a big fan of school in general and knew that if I didn’t go for my Master’s right away I probably never would. So, right after undergrad I went to Arizona State University and earned my Master’s of Sustainability Solutions in just one and a half years. Choosing a thesis can be a difficult task, and I definitely didn’t go into the program knowing what I wanted to do. At the beginning of the program, our cohort had a camping trip for us to get to know each other. Of course, I brought my camera along, and one of the professors noticed my interest. With his guidance, I was able to choose a thesis project that combined my love of photography, travel, and the environment. I had the opportunity to travel around the Phoenix area and to Denmark to assess and document community-based sustainability solutions, namely community gardening, through photojournalism (check the project out here! https://keep.lib.asu.edu/items/126689).

It took a while after graduate school to land my first job, but I wound up in Atlanta, Georgia working as a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Analyst for the Georgia Department of Transportation. While there, I worked on the assessment and documentation of environmental resources within roadway project areas. It was a decent, stable job and I did learn a lot (much of which I never thought I would know about), but at the end of the day, I never enjoyed the job. It was all paperwork, sitting in front of the computer all day, and didn’t feel very meaningful to me personally. I remained there for a little over 3 years and after another lengthy job search, I moved to the Charlotte area in March of 2022. I am now working for Catawba Riverkeeper as the Watershed Manager for the Southern Basin.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I think it’s rare for anyone nowadays to have a challenge-less path. I often am in conflict with the struggles I had because I did grow up in a stable, loving home without a lot of worries that so many people have. As I mentioned, I was never a huge fan of school. I remember doing well enough in elementary school, but upon moving, I suddenly was one of the youngest in my grade and I feel it put me behind the other students. I always got good grades, but throughout primary school, working alongside and comparing myself to my sister, I noticed I constantly had to work ten times as hard to do just as well (if not a little worse).

I would procrastinate a lot (on top of playing softball, volunteering, and working a part-time job in high school) and thus spent many long nights finishing homework and projects. I had, and still have, such a hard time focusing, especially on reading. It was a constant, vicious cycle of being too overwhelmed by my work to do it, and consequently frustrated that I couldn’t get the work done. I struggled with motivation not just to do school work but to be active on weekends too; it would often just seem like too much. It was not until my sophomore year of college that I truly acknowledged these challenges and accepted that I actually do have ADHD and needed medical help. I’m not one to take even ibuprofen unless I truly need it, so this was a big deal for me. But it helped a lot in the times that I needed it. Each year since then, I have gained a much stronger understanding of this condition, how it affects my daily life, and the ways to work with that.

I think I’ve grown a lot and learned a lot about myself in the past few years. I faced the most difficult relationship of my life that started and ended within my first year in GA. It was only in hindsight, being out of the bubble, and through a lot of self-reflection that I truly realized how poorly he treated me through both physical and emotional abuse. But it was heartbreaking nonetheless and took me longer than I care to admit for me to finally be okay with it, which wouldn’t have happened without the support of close friends. And, as a result of that relationship, I was also able to begin learning about asexuality and demisexuality which was so eye-opening.

Then, the pandemic hit. And then the BLM movement. I was living in the heart of the Atlanta protests. I found myself in crippling self-reflection upon realizing I had been blind and complacent in my apathy about these matters for a long time. I took my bystander approach and tossed it out the window, plunging myself fully into the protests and sharing those stories on social media. Despite its unfortunate, unjust origins, I am so thankful for that experience.

Fast forward to the end of that summer, I decided to take a vacation to the GA coast. With plenty of PTO built up, I took the plunge and went on my first ever truly solo extended trip. I wound up hiking close to 90 miles in 9 days, saw a lot of bird species, and got to see a lot of the coast. I also ventured into attempting self-portraits, which you see here.

Out of pure chance, I met someone while I was there. Almost a fairytale story where we met in passing at sunrise on a beach and connected online a couple of days later. But fairytales aren’t real, and despite how much we wanted them to succeed at the time, the relationship ultimately didn’t last very long. Yet again I was forced to reflect on another emotionally abusive relationship. It was not all for naught, though, as I did not know before that I was queer and that discovery opened up a whole new world to me.

The weight of trauma, failed relationships, of lost connections, is a hard one to bear. Navigating neurodivergence, especially when you’re unaware you have any, is a constantly difficult task. All of this, though, taught me a lot and ultimately led me to where I am now, which is very happy with my amazing girlfriend of just over one year and in a job where I feel I am starting to make a difference.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Since I only just started my current job a few months ago, I myself am still learning exactly what it is I do. But, it’s been fun so far! In my first year with Catawba Riverkeeper, I will be working on compiling and prioritizing a list of potential water quality improvement projects to implement in South Carolina’s portion of the Catawba-Wateree watershed. Amidst doing that, I will be performing tasks as they arise, such as sampling water to test for various contaminants and pollution levels, meeting with stakeholders, etc. As opposed to my previous desk job, this is much more hands-on which I love. I have been able to get out on the waters of North and South Carolina both for the job and recreation.

Though I had a camera since late high school, it was in Arizona that my love of hiking and photography really took off. The beauty of the landscapes there is unmatched and it swept me away. I began exploring parks near where I was living and slowly continued to travel farther and farther away, chasing the views and wildlife. The epitome of that was probably when a couple of my friends and I camped at Havasupai Indian Reservation – a several-hour drive to get to the trail followed by a 10-mile hike (with a 40+ pound pack) into the Grand Canyon where we stayed and hiked around for a few days.

In moving to Georgia, having never been there before, I was worried that the photography opportunities would be minimal. I was glad to be proven wrong. Though the landscapes cannot compare to AZ, there is so much to offer in the way of biodiversity. I started becoming more interested in waterfalls and how to take long exposure photos, in plant identification (especially with the spring wildflowers), and most notably in birding. It was the start of the pandemic when I began hiking more locally and looking for other things to take photos of. On one of those hikes, I ran into a now good friend who inadvertently fueled my slightly existent interest in birds into now being a self-proclaimed intermediate bird nerd who keeps an excel sheet of all the species I’ve seen and photographed. I now have taken specific trips, sometimes great distances, just in the hopes of finding a species, and spent countless hours out hiking this past spring during migration. It’s definitely become a true passion of mine.

As is exemplified by my Master’s thesis, I want to be able to use my photography as a way to educate. To show people the world, things they have never seen before or may never see, to remind them of nature’s beauty, and ultimately as an emphasis on how important it is to care for our planet. The basis of most of my interests lies in that realm. The more people that I can inspire to appreciate nature for nature’s sake and start taking steps towards sustainable living, the better off we will all be. I also sell prints of my photos on my website and pick a different nonprofit organization each quarter to donate 15% of my proceeds to.

As I mentioned before, I am now in the healthiest relationship of my life. We have the same values, communicate, work out any differences that arise, compromise, and honestly just have fun. We go on so many adventures, mostly hiking, where I can take my photos and she can do her fishing. We can be our weird, awesome selves with each other and I think that’s something everyone hopes for.

But unfortunately, we still live in a disgustingly discriminatory world. As queer women, we often talk about queer/minority issues and one of the things we say most is that “we can hide our gay.” I am Jewish, I am queer, and I am a woman; I am an environmentalist, a photographer, a hiker, and a birder; but I am white. Although I am mindful of my identity as a woman when I’m out alone, anyone off the street wouldn’t think twice about who I am otherwise; that’s my privilege. To consider what it is like for BIPOC, other LGBTQ+, any other minorities who get judged and berated simply based on who they are is devastating. Just as I made an appeal to care for our Earth, I ask that we always stand up for injustices in every facet of society.

I hope that my openness and comfortability with who I am and what I’ve been through can resonate with others. I think I am proud of who I am, who I have become, and who I am yet to be. There should be no stopwatch on personal growth. We should strive for happiness in the present while still knowing there is always more to learn and other perspectives to see.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Favorites are always difficult for me, so I’ll give you a couple. When I was about 3 years old, we got our first family dog – a corgi named Fletcher. He was a special pup. I most strongly remember a few things… As a herding dog, he liked to run around and chase us if we were playing. Especially when we would have friends over, he would try to herd us as we ran around the house, and that’s a special memory. I also have always had difficulty making decisions, and I recall when I was probably in kindergarten laying out a few outfits on the floor so he could pick which one for me to wear. On a sweeter note, it was so evident that he always knew how we were feeling to the degree that he would come running to comfort us if we were sad or crying. He was the best, and it devastated our family when he unexpectedly passed away at only 9 years old.

As a general group of memories, I spent a lot of time with my extended family growing up. Being Jewish gave us a lot of holidays to celebrate and we would spend most of them with loved ones, hanging out and eating entirely too much home-cooked food. Those are cherished memories of mine, especially as I get older.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rachaelrosenstein.smugmug.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachrosenstein/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachaelRosensteinPhotography

Image Credits
Rachael Rosenstein