Growing up on a farm is different in many ways to growing up in the city. On a farm in the middle of nowhere so to say you don’t have close neighbors nor are you able to walk out your backdoor down the street and spend the afternoon with your friends. I went to a small country school that was full of kids just like me, we all got up and done chores before school and when we got home we finished up what needed to be done. Summers were full of hard work and that is what molded us into the adults that we are now however that meant that for the couple months that school was out we didn’t get to talk to or hang out with most of our friends. All of my sisters are a lot older than me and by the time I was five they were all out of our parents’ house; …show more content…
When we took of exploring the only rule we had was we were not to cross any fences, other than the one from the field our dads were in into the one we were exploring. We didn’t understand then why we couldn’t cross anymore fences but looking back we understand now that it was for our own safety; we didn’t know then what fields we were allowed to be in and which ones were the neighbors fields, we didn’t know if there were any cattle in those fields that might charge us and if we crossed fences we might not have been able to find our way back where we needed to be. We would walk through the fields through the woods and always seemed to find something interesting, once we found a spring that ran through the woods it was beautiful it ran down through some rocks that formed a waterfall, I remember once we found it that was where we went every summer while our dads cut, racked and baled the hay. I don’t know if we were not allowed to run the tractors at this time because we were young and not tall enough to reach the pedals or if it was because our dads wanted us to be able to get out and be kids but whatever the case was we were able to enjoy the landscape in multiple …show more content…
You know a couple little girls are not going to be able to keep up with grown men when it comes to bucking bales or stacking them and even though we could not reach the pedals of the truck either we could drive. Okay so we did not actually drive, dad would put the farm truck in first gear slide out the door and we would steer through the hay bales. We couldn’t reach the gas or the break and in order to be able to see out of the window we would have to set on our knees but that did not stop us. We were never allowed to drive anywhere other than the hayfield but this gave us lots of practice, we had to make sure that we were between the rows of hay and didn’t hit of the bales. When they got the truck full dad would slide back in and take over driving us to the barn to unload the hay and then we would go back to the field and start off where we had just left. Even though driving through the field was a lot of fun the stop on our way home was always even better; after a long hot day in the field we always got to stop for a soda and candy bar or sometimes even ice
Being in the wild is a great experience, it opens doors and bridges inside one’s mind. It allows people to be inspired, to find hope. It gives people a sense of direction and helps people conquer challenges that they never thought they would achieve. The example left behind by a young man named Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer demonstrates how living on the road and surviving off the land can prove to be a pilgrimage and help enlighten others to go out in search of their own philosophical ideals. Whether it is being away from home and travel all across America, not settling down in one place, but staying long enough in one place and have an affect on someone else, or being with your family hiking up a mountain and be able to look at the scenery that nature brought forth.
Many of the readings that we have studied in class have discussed the idea of human beings and our relationships with nature. The different authors we’ve studied and the works we’ve analyzed share different views of this relationship – a very interesting aspect to study. Human relationships with nature are truly timeless – nature can have the same effects on humans now as it did millions of years ago. Two of the works in particular which offered differing views on this relationship were “Entrance to the Woods” by Wendell Berry and “The Invented Landscape” by Frederick Turner.
Because of some of the circumstances that make me who I am, it is hard to say I have any one definitive home. Instead, I have had two true homes, ever since I was a young child. What makes this even more of a conundrum is that my homes have always had little in common, even though they are only a few hundred miles apart. Between the big city of Houston, Texas, and the small town of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, I have grown up in two very different towns that relate to one another only in the sense that they have both raised me.
In his book, Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (1). Emerson was an avid nature lover who lived, for most of his life, in beautiful wilderness. Many of Emerson’s works vividly document his magnificent, breath-taking experiences. This book leaves the reader desiring the feel of nature that Emerson felt and yearning for nature’s peaceful effect on one’s life.
The time spent there became more about meeting family friends and going to dinners. Almost four years passed before I returned to the memory of getting lost in those woods. It was a week before the start to my junior year of high school, and I was visiting my grandparents in Virginia. One morning, after a very early breakfast and a promise to return promptly, I walked outside toward the woods. I walked aimlessly, remembering the similar trips I used to make in the forest upstate. I saw a young kid, eager to dirty his hands with exploration of the tangible world. I was older now, and my summer had been spent exploring a possible career path by interning at a financial services firm. A sudden thought crept slowly into my mind, piecing itself together before my
At first, the idea of escaping into nature was cumbersome. Meandering aimlessly concerned me. My mind was stained with negative thoughts of solitude and being alone first felt demoralizing, but slowly my earlier assumption dissipated, fully disappearing from the subconscious once I broke the boundary and stepped into nature. Emerson notes, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair” (8). I too believe what Emerson says. In my own rush to “fit in” I dismissed my own morals accepted others as if they were my own. I put my energy into modeling myself according to the contemplation of others, all the while ignoring principles
The current wilderness had been created by societal views and provided a mythos of the wild frontier undisturbed by society and allowed to be given the status of a backup in case an escape from civilized life is necessary. William Cronon explains how in the seventeenth century and before one did not have to explore the earth to find wilderness, it was everywhere and much harsher in regards to sustaining, before modern civilization nature was dominant. In modern times society has had to fight, hard, to preserve the remnants of nature. The main objective lies in the unification of both natural and urban life in order to create a new societal perspective, find the equilibrium between a metropolis, residential area, and the outdoors, and find a better ground for the word home. If the perspective of comparing the environment to a museum is taken then the chance that a separation occurs between humanity and the natural world increases, and the responsibility felt toward ensuring its survival and information about it would decrease. Humanity no longer takes part in the processes of mother nature, instead a more watchful perspective is taken which allows us to take on a more protective
Looking back on my life there haven’t been a lot of times where I felt like an outsider. I always had a group of friends, a family that loved me, and I like to think that my peers always thought of me as a pretty fun to be around person. However last year there was a time where I did feel as though rejection was prominent in my life..
Movie Midterm Paper Alexa Snyder Thomas Jefferson University PSYCH 223: Marriage and Family Adrienne O’Hara February 29, 2024 Having a family member or being the family member with mental illness is tough. Especially bipolar because with bipolar it does not affect oneself as much as it affects the people around them. In the movie Silver Linings Playbook, it is obvious that the son, Pat, is bipolar with delusions.
In the essay “Children in the Woods”, Barry Lopez discusses how he encourages children to take an interest in wildlife and nature conservation. His methods include taking children on walking tours through forests while prompting them to make observations. Lopez places special emphasis on the abundance of knowledge that can be gained through observation. Lopez emboldens children to use their imaginations while discovering nature instead of relying on the author’s “encyclopedic knowledge” (Lopez 735). The author also focuses on how many components of nature work together as a whole. In “Why I Hunt”, Rick Bass writes about his passion for hunting. Bass describes how hunting, besides a means of sustenance, is an exercise in imagination. Bass observes how society has become preoccupied with instant gratification and has lost its sense of imagination, “confusing anticipation with imagination” (Bass 745). Both essays share common ideas, such as how an active imagination is vital to the human experience, the totality of connection in the natural world, and the authors’ strong spiritual connections to their environments. In contrast, the main focus of Lopez’s essay is conservation education in children, while Bass’s essay discusses how society has become disassociated from nature in a modernized society.
A deep, unending, and unfulfilled thirst for adventure and exploration arose when I read this quote from Edward Abbey. Untamed and wild, nature possesses exquisite beauty and wonders that even the wildest imagination could not conceive. Abbey’s quote captures this untamed beauty almost perfectly in the form of words. While nature contains such wonders, it is not always willing to immediately yield its secrets. Nevertheless, persistence and effort are key when it comes to discovering the magnificence of Mother Nature, as the hardest trails are sure to bear the sweetest rewards.
I was fifteen when it all began; the laughing, taunting, teasing, the confusion. It wasn’t always like this. I used to be happy.
During these years I spent most of my time at home. If I finished my schoolwork early, I would go play outside with my siblings. I spent most of my evenings going to my activities such as football, baseball, or taekwondo. I also went to many homeschooling group meetings where I got to meet and talk to many other kids. Even though I spent so much time outside, going to activities with other kids I felt that I had very little amount of friends. Even though after all this time spending with other kids and I never fully knew them. My activities offered very little time to actually talk to the other kids making it difficult to make friends. Since I barely got to talk to these kids I felt awkward when I went back to public
Growing up for me some would say it was rather difficult and in some ways I would agree. There have been a lot of rough times that I have been through. This has and will affect my life for the rest of my life. The leading up to adoption, adoption and after adoption are the reasons my life were difficult.
Emerson shows that the wilderness has a different kind of eloquence of beauty than a person can find in a street or village. A person can not explore the fullness of nature in the streets or villages, that person must get away and explore the depths of nature. Also, The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls shows beauty along the beach. “The mornings breaks; the steeds in their stalls/ Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls; The day returns” (Longfellow 11-13). The sunrise in the mornings and the sight and noises from the horses are another part of exploring the different beauties of nature.