A Different Kind of Wild

There are benefits to being born in a place like Colorado. A place where it seems so simple to have incredible experiences in nature. But I’ve also been realizing that there are limitations.

Coming to Texas I had concluded that I would be experiencing four years without nature, and I feel that this course has truly what has changed my understanding of that.

The difficulty in embracing nature comes with the easy tendency for college students to only stay within the bubble surrounding TCU. Our campus acts as a gorgeous fortress, filled with beautiful things and beautiful buildings, continually scattered with impeccably perfect flowers from the tulips in the spring to the purple pansies in the early fall; TCU welcomes us with serene manicured beauty.

I relished this beauty when I first came to campus, but quickly in my first semester, I began searching for a place to hang my hammock. Back home sitting in my hammock was the way that I reset. I would take it on hikes or simply up by the reservoir, string it between two trees, and lay there for hours letting my thoughts wash over me and eventually run dry.

In being unable to find the perfect place to hang my hammock, I believe that I have unintentionally limited my enjoyment of the natural beauty at TCU and the surrounding neighborhoods. Luckily this class has encouraged me to get outside and explore the nature that surrounds us here in Fort Worth.

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After an emotional start to my day all I wanted to do was string up my hammock and swing, but without that elusive hammocking spot, I settled for going on a walk.

I embarked to clear my head and I found myself perched in a cedar elm overlooking the expanse of greenery that covers the small distance between St. Stephen’s Church and my perch.

I had made this walk before but never with the intentionality that I brought that day.

Hard days often cause my thoughts to come crashing internally, overly focusing on the uncontrollable aspects of the problems at hand, but with the help of the grackles' squawks, along with the shouts of the crickets and katydids, I began to recognize and release my woes.

I think this day truly changed the remainder of my time here at TCU so I will leave you with what I wrote in my phone notes as I sat in the tree:

"I plan to return to this vantage point– even if it is only in my mind –when I am needing clarity or a change of perspective because today, from my new view, misfortunes are looking far less grim and the sky looks a few shades brighter and bluer."