Texts, Treks, and Bears Oh My!

On Monday, I made a promise to myself that I would try to get outside for at least an hour a day and appreciate the nature around me. I thought I would be consistent and write down my observations throughout the week.             Monday had rainy weather so I sat out on the porch of my apartment, which overlooks a courtyard with trees. I’m not much of a fan of rain, but it felt peaceful to sit out and watch the water run down the tree leaves and splash onto the pavement. It was also the start of the week that felt more like fall weather and that we wouldn’t have so much humidity anymore.             Tuesday was more of the same weather like the day before, unfortunately. However, I did sit outside when there was a period where the rain ceased and it was interesting to see the aftermath of the rain. Some parts of the apartment courtyard had flooded, but the...

The third week at the nature center marked the halfway point of our excursions out at the center. I feel as though by now I’m more confident with getting there and more excited with each week. I also feel like every week we’re given more extensive tasks. This week we worked out of one of the bison ranges that we would normally pass on our way to the greenhouse or the overlooking trail where we cleared brush last week. Our task this week was to clear out mesquite, a plant that grows all over the range and botanists have hotly debated whether or not it is native to Texas. This plant has large thorns all over and although the bison like to eat the leaves off of it, it is not a good plant to have around to run a bison herd through. Bison are grazers, and a plant with thorns definitely does not help with that. We were placed in groups of four and each one of us had an assigned job, whether that was to chop down the mesquite, drag the mesqui...

With fall break coming up next weekend, I found myself coordinating plans with friends and trying to figure out transportation for those said plans. While doing this, I couldn’t help but think of how much we emphasize getting from one place to the next as quickly as possible. We live in a culture where we have Uber but cringe when we realize we’ll have to wait 10 or 15 minutes when we could be getting in one now. We want to travel to new places but don’t stop to appreciate the journey to get to one place to another and see long car rides as opportunities to sleep instead of staring out the window to see what is out there on the way. With this situation, I could not help but think of Thoreau and our class discussions from weeks ago. Although it took me some time to warm up to Thoreau, as I viewed his work as long-winded with details and some of his observations caught me off guard, I now realize that many of his opinions and observations are relevant to my life now. The q...