Mulk

Last night I wanted a glass of water. I went to the fridge. I opened the door. I got some water. I poured it into my glass. I drank the water. A little while later, my toddler wanted some water. He went to the fridge. He pouted. He held the handle. He looked at me. He said, 'Mulk!' (his term for any drinkable liquid). I took his queues and poured him some mulk.

Life often gives you tools. It gave me legs, a refrigerator, water, and a glass. Maybe you have these things, too! It's really great when you put these tools together! Sometimes, however, your tools are a little more cryptic and the instructions are unclear. Oh! So I have 20% Native American in my results but my Y-DNA haplogroup is R (European) and I have 5 matches, all with Arabic names! Well this is a fun puzzle! In this situation, you should preferably start with a beer.

Genetic genealogy, just like literally everything ever, will not tell you the meaning of life. It is a tool. You have to use that tool to make some mulk. If you get your results and sit on them until...forever...well you're probably not reading this blog in the first place. You do get what you put in, to a degree. That's not to say you get your money back. That's unfortunately the one thing you don't get back. However, the array of knowledge now available to you is larger than you might think. Even if you have no matches. Even if your matches don't write back.

Though it can be potentially scary to uncover your biological past, there's nothing really you can do wrong when navigating or acting upon your results (except maybe writing vulgar emails to your Matches. That would be wrong). On a related topic, Roberta Estes' recent blog post about how to contact your matches is fantastic (http://dna-explained.com/2016/01/20/saying-hello-in-the-dna-world/). Write your matches. Even if they are distant or even if you don't really care. Distant matches can provide great information. Engage in projects. Unsurprisingly, Roberta also has a great recent blog post on projects (http://dna-explained.com/2016/01/25/how-to-join-a-dna-project/). I feel that maybe my posts should just be links to Roberta's blog.

Nothing will be answered for you. Think of your DNA results as a family reunion you didn't realize you were having. There's people you like there. There's people you don't. If you sit at a table by yourself with your Diet Coke and don't talk to anyone, why are you here? I get it. The free T-shirt. If you engage in conversation, however, you might find out that  your uncle fought in WWII and saved a village in France and now has a town there named after him. Similarly, contacting a match might reveal that you share a common ancestor in France in the 19th century. What if your uncle saved his own ancestor's descendants? Wouldn't that be nuts?

Within your results are other tools you may not even realize exist. Go get a glass of water from the fridge and explore.