Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Gaston
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was quite young, I realized I just wanted to make people happy and to smile if but for a moment. I wanted to become a comedian to make people laugh, but as it turned out I was a terribly shy kid and when presented with the opportunity to tell jokes – I froze. Then I thought about being a dentist. As it turns out, most people do not enjoy doing to the dentist, and I did not care of teeth and all that gross stuff. When I was in the third grade, I went to a summer camp at the San Antonio Botanical Garden and got hooked on plants! On the final day of the camp, a mustachioed horticulturalist gave me a little ferocactus with long fishhook spines. This was the moment in which I was “hooked” on plants.
I kept learning about plants throughout high school and undergraduate, but along the way, I was reminded of how terrified I was as a kid trying to tell those jokes. I was paralyzed at the idea of public speaking, but I realized if I was talking about plants it was tremendously easy! So I forced myself to practice my public speaking, and by practice public speaking I am I took education classes where I would be required to teach K-12 grade students lessons on science or math. Sure as sunshine I quite enjoyed facilitating opportunities for folks to learn and grow and ended up minoring in science and math education.
With a keen focus on going into botanical education, I went off to graduate school in pursuit of a Ph.D. I thought that this would help me be a better teacher and in many ways the program did just that. Covid-19 hit and we were all on lockdown. My in person Ph.D. examinations were professors ask you questions for hours was now moved online. In hopes of practicing speaking clearly to a camera, I started making cooking videos. Cooking is not my best undertaking nor did I get great joy from this, so I stopped the little cooking videos. My sister informed me that I would talk about plants all the time with her, so I should make little plant videos for TikTok. The first video I made was on how putting your Poinsettia plant from last year in the closet for three days will make it flower again and be vibrant and showy. This video did very well with the gay folks. And I have been making little educational plant videos since then.
Now, I spend my days as the Education Director at Zilker Botanical Garden leading field trips and organizing adult classes. Not only do I love plants for their beauty and taste, they helped me grow as a person and get out of my comfort zone.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Life is full of exciting adventures! I presume most people have challenges in their lives, so my experiences are not novel. When I was in graduate school- like most graduate students- I did not have many funds. This lead to me working three part-time jobs while being a student. My relatively high consumption of calories directed me strategically to work at a restaurant near my apartment. This little Greek restaurant was charming, small, and terribly poorly visited resulting in hours of down time and many falafel sandwiches. It was just me and the chef who would talk story for hours while we watch people walk by. Several times I had to defuse angry and perturbed folks and this experience is what helped me become confident in myself. Hard times make us grow and if we do not grow then hopefully we learn something about ourself or the world.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the Education Director at Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, Texas. This charming little garden was built by dedicated volunteers in the 1960s and still has a rich community atmosphere full of passionate and caring folks. In my work, I organize field trips, continuing education, workshops, and educational community programs. When I took the job, I thought most of my time would be spent with adult education, but as it turns out, about 80% of my time is spent organizing and leading elementary school field trips! I love to be silly and so do the 2nd graders.
One day in the middle of an elementary school field trip, this girl comes up to me and tells me “Matthew! I couldn’t sleep last night.” I was startled and I was like, “Ah! Are you ok?” She told me that she couldn’t sleep last night as she was so excited to visit! I cried a little bit because this was me when I was her age. Later she came up to me again and told me that she had never been hiking before. I asked if she liked it, and then she said she loved it. This one interaction was so profound to me I think about it whenever we have a field trip visiting. Just as I was so deeply impacted at a botanical garden in elementary school, perhaps someone will have a similar experience, and it will alter the way they view plants and nature.
I am most proud of the fun we have here at ZBG. The most important thing is fun, and if it is not fun, then why the hell are we here? At the time of this interview, I just finished leading a summer camp group and I shared that fun is the most important thing. She corrected me stating that the most important thing is safety then fun. I am still most proud of the fun, we are mostly safe- minimal snake bites.
Any big plans?
Creating brings such joy! I like to write silly rhymes and songs and then incorporate them into videos. I am currently working on some long form videos and publications. More to be revealed in time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mckgaston/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://x.com/MCKGaston?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MCKGaston
