Like many students, Leigh Blom didn’t know what to do after high school. She wasn’t sure what path she wanted to take or where her life would end up.

Blom is graduating with a degree in geology, plans for the future, and a 6-year-old son who is learning by example the value of lifelong learning.

Blom’s path began four years after high school, when she went to the University of Idaho to study creative writing and art. In her junior year, she realized that creative writing wasn’t quite what she was expecting. She loved art but didn’t want to have to try to sell it all the time.

So Blom left the U of I and moved to Arizona to “start over and do the sciences.” She attended a community college in Tucson part time and, being drawn into the field by a Werner Herzog documentary on volcanoes, started on a geology degree, eventually moving to southern Idaho to attend the College of Southern Idaho, graduating with associate degrees in art and geology. On Saturday, she will walk across the stage at Idaho State University with a bachelor’s degree in geology and plans to attend graduate school.

“I really like petrology and geochemistry — like how rocks form and change over time,” she said. “You can have the same materials come in, but slightly different temperatures and pressures change it into different things.”

It’s how Blom views life as well.

“So I went into the arts, and I learned all these things, and then I did a complete changeover and went into the sciences,” she said. “But the amount of stuff I’m using that I learned in the arts is amazing. Like, every single time we come across something new, I’m like, ‘Ah, I already know what that is.’ We were talking about how light transmits through something, and sure, in the arts, we never talked about it in some science terms, but it’s like ‘Oh, yeah, you have to think about that when you’re doing watercolors and other painting mediums’ … you’re going to learn something else from this.”

Blom wants to always keep the door open to possibilities.

“Things will change, and opportunities will rise. Just because a traditional path is no longer open doesn’t mean there’s an equally good other path that you hadn’t considered or even known about. The whole clichéd line that ‘knowledge is power’ is extremely true. You can take that advice and slightly go adjacent,” she said. “No matter where you wind up, you can start influencing people to be a little bit more open. Let’s be a little more this, or let’s design this slightly better. And every little bit helps to create a better one.”

Blom’s love of learning is never-ending, and it’s a life lesson she has already passed on to her son.

“He’s almost six right now, and so he’s definitely at the ‘I need to be in what you’re doing all of the time’ phase,” she said. “And so, it does make it hard, but it’s going to be better for us overall. He comes up and asks me to identify rocks all the time. But that was kind of inspiring, too. Like, all of my hard work is influencing someone else.”

As she graduates with her peers on Saturday, Blom has some advice for future students as well.

“If there’s something you want, go for it. I spent so many years either being part time or having to wait to get residency back or get back into school, but even though I’m older than my classmates, it’s been worthwhile to go into these experiences,” she said. “Don’t let the way people react or think dictate what you do. Do the things you want to do, and make a difference with that. There’s always a way to — you just have to be open to the door that leads you there.”