Treks and Texts

1. Our first canoe trip- Benbrook Lake 2. My first nature exploration- Trinity River 3. Sunset- Trinity River 4. Greene Ave. in fall 5. The desert on the way to LV, Nevada 6. Roses at a museum 7. Sunset- Austin, TX 8. The water in Newport, CA 9. Our hike over study abroad- Spain 10. Our hike to Machu Picchu- Peru  

      Looking back on this semester, I feel like this course allowed me to connect with nature and the people around me in more intentional ways. Within the classroom, I was able to make new friendships and have bonding experiences that impacted my life for the better. I think that going on treks to canoe or the nature center, no matter what circumstances arose, brought our group closer together and allowed us to escape our lives for a while. Everyone in our class came from a different backgrounds and majors and we were all able to come together to work on a single cause. Many people in our class I lived within in Milton freshman year so it was sweet to be able to come together again and make memories in our senior year. We all have changed so much and it is exciting to connect later in our college careers to see where we all ended up. I also got to make new friends through my project group and make connections that extend out of the classroom. I think this course was an ...

  An idea I thought about in class was the division between nature and society. Growing up in the city I have grown to love the comfort of people, busy streets, activity, and the constant desire to do something. I have seen my city grow and develop over the years and never really wished for more. My sister would sometimes say how she wanted to move out to land and how we should all live near each other. My first thought was why would I live far away from everything I need? Why would I not want to live 10 minutes from every hot spot I attend on a daily basis? My world has been overcome by convenience and getting things done.      I feel like I always thought I would not know what to do if I lived out of the city. Would I just raise animals? Would I have to work harder maintaining it? Would it be too quiet? I think the last one is what i reflect on the most. While I do find times in my day to be alone, I am never fully just quiet. My phone buzzing, scrolling aimlessly,...

 Before this class, I always thought of wilderness as the isolated, dangerous, and deserted parts of the world. In every movie growing up the wilderness is the place that the character is never supposed to venture until they finally escape. As I thought about this I reflected on the fact that every movie and adventure starts with stepping out of our world into this unknown wilderness. By the end, the wilderness becomes a place of discovery and appreciation about the world around them.      The wilderness also implies a sense of separation. A split between two world that will never mix and were never meant to. The wilderness if anything tries to draw us away to keep this distance. But what really is it? Is it really just a scary place that no man should touch or did we just make that up? Did our fear of the unknown and undiscovered lead us to believe the wilderness is inherently bad? This made me think back to discussions in class where we talked about how men were al...