Personal Land Ethic Essay: Where The Mountains Can Take Us
I have always found a sense of comfort in the vast mountains of southwest Colorado. I am on th top of the world, with everything right before my eyes, and the cool alpine air blowing past my face. This brings a calm to my soul unlike any other, a true place where I can clear my mind and be free of everything.
For the past 17 years of my life I have been lucky enough to call Durango home. While there is a sense of being trapped in this valley, there is nowhere else I would have rather grown up. My whole life I am blessed with the ability to go out and explore this beautiful world around me. There are different types of landscapes right at my finger tips. I have been exposed to this wonder my whole life, it has made me grow a deep appreciation for the wilderness around me. The land is a gift, being exposed to this beauty every day makes us extremely lucky, I never take that for granted. This should reflect in how we treat the land when we go out and adventure.
We must leave the land better than we found it and protect what was there long before us. We allneed to make a conscious effort in our day to day lives to live a sustainable life. This connection and gratitude should be reflected in how we treat land when we are visiting. There are simple rules that we should all follow when exploring. For example, not telling people about places, rather letting them discover it on their own. Being in the moment when you are out and enjoying a place to the fullest. Leaving a place better than you found it and not taking things that don't belong to you. Making an effort to respect, have minimal impact on land, and following leave no trace etiquette. We should work to teach future generations how to visit respectfully, so we can instill respectful behavior into everyone from a young age in order to better protect the environment. Then we should support companies in our daily lives that also work to protect the environment. All of these things working together will allow more people to access, explore, and adventure the world around them.
I care about giving back and protecting this land because of how much good it has done for my life. It is only fair if we respect what we have been given. This is important to me because it is why I am who I am today and why we need to fight to protect all of the beauty around us. The wild has a weird way of making us see straight in our blurryist days, I have learned so much from taking a break. Going out and exploring until I feel once again connected to this world. There is nothing else like it, impossible to replace. I think that everyday we take this for granted and need to appreciate what we have access to. I grew up immersed in the land and wild around me and I have always cherished that for as long as I can remember. I love the things that the world has taught me about myself, life, etc and I feel that everyone should have access to this gift.
I will never forget the feeling of sitting over everything, beginning to be able to see my entire life before my eyes, all of the places I have spent the past 17 years of my life, just sitting there right before my eyes. It is such a treat to think back on my life and the area that surrounds me, and have a beautiful memory from every part of Colorado. There is something in the elevation, thin air, and 360 degree view of peace that makes you feel free and at peace. I have always felt safe and at home in the mountains, like I can do anything I could ever need to, this feeling comes back into my everyday life and grounds me. There is so much wonder out there and you have to be ready for anything and adapt.
There is something magical about the mountains around Durango, everywhere has its own feel. Although no matter where you end up, there is an overwhelming feeling of bliss and freedom that comes along with it. Being able to see for longer than your eyes can take you, not knowing what is over the next cliff instills a sense of wonder about the world into someone. There is absolutely nothing better than running down a field of wild flowing, with the sweet smell passing through and wind brushing your hair back. Feeling the land beneath your feet, once again connecting to our world. Climbing over rocks, only to have another to conquer at the top, a never ending adventure. Jumping into an icy, clear blue lake, with the most immaculate view. At the end of a long day of running rampant, to watch a sunset, filled with all of the colors, relaxing then watching the start, only to do it all again.
Think back on your own life, and the places that have impacted you. Why are they so special to you, what makes them magical and meaningful? How can you work in your everyday life to protect that land and give back? Have these places helped you form your identity or a personal land ethic? It is up to us to take care of this Earth the same way it has taken care of us.
For the past 17 years of my life I have been lucky enough to call Durango home. While there is a sense of being trapped in this valley, there is nowhere else I would have rather grown up. My whole life I am blessed with the ability to go out and explore this beautiful world around me. There are different types of landscapes right at my finger tips. I have been exposed to this wonder my whole life, it has made me grow a deep appreciation for the wilderness around me. The land is a gift, being exposed to this beauty every day makes us extremely lucky, I never take that for granted. This should reflect in how we treat the land when we go out and adventure.
We must leave the land better than we found it and protect what was there long before us. We allneed to make a conscious effort in our day to day lives to live a sustainable life. This connection and gratitude should be reflected in how we treat land when we are visiting. There are simple rules that we should all follow when exploring. For example, not telling people about places, rather letting them discover it on their own. Being in the moment when you are out and enjoying a place to the fullest. Leaving a place better than you found it and not taking things that don't belong to you. Making an effort to respect, have minimal impact on land, and following leave no trace etiquette. We should work to teach future generations how to visit respectfully, so we can instill respectful behavior into everyone from a young age in order to better protect the environment. Then we should support companies in our daily lives that also work to protect the environment. All of these things working together will allow more people to access, explore, and adventure the world around them.
I care about giving back and protecting this land because of how much good it has done for my life. It is only fair if we respect what we have been given. This is important to me because it is why I am who I am today and why we need to fight to protect all of the beauty around us. The wild has a weird way of making us see straight in our blurryist days, I have learned so much from taking a break. Going out and exploring until I feel once again connected to this world. There is nothing else like it, impossible to replace. I think that everyday we take this for granted and need to appreciate what we have access to. I grew up immersed in the land and wild around me and I have always cherished that for as long as I can remember. I love the things that the world has taught me about myself, life, etc and I feel that everyone should have access to this gift.
I will never forget the feeling of sitting over everything, beginning to be able to see my entire life before my eyes, all of the places I have spent the past 17 years of my life, just sitting there right before my eyes. It is such a treat to think back on my life and the area that surrounds me, and have a beautiful memory from every part of Colorado. There is something in the elevation, thin air, and 360 degree view of peace that makes you feel free and at peace. I have always felt safe and at home in the mountains, like I can do anything I could ever need to, this feeling comes back into my everyday life and grounds me. There is so much wonder out there and you have to be ready for anything and adapt.
There is something magical about the mountains around Durango, everywhere has its own feel. Although no matter where you end up, there is an overwhelming feeling of bliss and freedom that comes along with it. Being able to see for longer than your eyes can take you, not knowing what is over the next cliff instills a sense of wonder about the world into someone. There is absolutely nothing better than running down a field of wild flowing, with the sweet smell passing through and wind brushing your hair back. Feeling the land beneath your feet, once again connecting to our world. Climbing over rocks, only to have another to conquer at the top, a never ending adventure. Jumping into an icy, clear blue lake, with the most immaculate view. At the end of a long day of running rampant, to watch a sunset, filled with all of the colors, relaxing then watching the start, only to do it all again.
Think back on your own life, and the places that have impacted you. Why are they so special to you, what makes them magical and meaningful? How can you work in your everyday life to protect that land and give back? Have these places helped you form your identity or a personal land ethic? It is up to us to take care of this Earth the same way it has taken care of us.
This is an essay about my sense of place, personal land ethic, where it comes from, and why I have it.
Social Movements: In The Opioid Epidemic Project
Throughout the first semester of my Junior year in humanities, we explored the idea of social movements, both past, and present. We looked at different strategies that a wide range of social movements have used, the evolution of voting rights, and protesting. While learning about all of these different topics, I was extremely curious about current social movements that are happening or should be. I have always been interested in drug education as it involves high school school students, so I came up with my own essential question that applied to that to. “What are current social movements that impact young adults in America today? How can we support and get involved in them? What kind of impact does it make on society and different communities?” My partner Teo and I wanted to design a drug education program for high schools and hold a series of seminars around this topic. This was inspired by my personal interest and experiences around drug education or lack thereof in my community. I saw a hole in my peers education, where no one knew anything about the effect of drugs on society and different harm reduction strategies that can be applied to everyone, everywhere. The point of our project is to raise awareness about the opioid crisis and drug use. There have been so many tragedies related to overdoses and drugs, we want to make it easier for students to learn about the dangers of drugs. In hopes of preventing more loss and having our students be more aware and educated. Starting the conversation about drug abuse will help destigmatize this topic in our community to lead to more awareness, education, and harm reduction strategies. For our final project, throughout the exhibition we want to have our audience have an open conversation, teach them how to use testing strips and naloxone. Just overall education about drugs and how education can benefit the youth. We hope for this to just be the beginning, starting next month, Animas will be holding community discussions and education sessions around drug abuse, prevention, and harm reduction strategies. Partnering with different community organizations like Axis Health, San Juan Public Basin Health, Young People in Recovery, etc.
During this project, I learned a lot about how far we have come as a country. The content of this project has made me realize where we came from and what direction we are heading towards. Although it of made me realize that in recent years I feel like we have stalled our progress, we are almost moving backward. I believe this is due to a lack of education throughout the country. Almost like everybody is just pretending that they know what is going on, instead of actually participating in life. We are all waiting for someone to step in and fix things, unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. This has inspired me to do whatever I can to make a difference and help people. I realized that no matter your lifestyle, you can find something that you are passionate about. Then take that and find away to help people and make a positive impact on society. As a country, I think that it would be very impactful if we all got up, got out, and helped!
After completing the exhibition there are still a few things that I was left wondering about social movements. Mainly around modern social movements that are currently happening and how we can get involved and make a difference. What are ways that we can take part in social movements that are happening? What are steps we can make to create a positive change in our society today? How can we get involved and make social change in our communities? I think that could have been a impactful thing to explore in this project so we can take action ourselves. Reflecting on the exhibition, I am proud of what we accomplished. We pulled it off. I think that the layout and flow of the exhibition, where we had everything, made a lot of sense to our audience. I belive that everyone who left our exhibition learned something new and I think that is awesome. During the actual exhibition itself, one thing I would have done differently is tried to pull in more people to talk to. I feel like most people would glance at the work and then keep walking. Instead of trying to engage with us and have a conversation about it. One thing as a group I think we could have worked on is having more students direct the audience through the exhibitions so people wouldn't get as lost as they did. then everyone would walk through it the same way to get the correct experience. This would have helped a lot with the timing and confusion. Overall I love how our exhibition turned out and the impact it had on our audience.
During this project, I learned a lot about how far we have come as a country. The content of this project has made me realize where we came from and what direction we are heading towards. Although it of made me realize that in recent years I feel like we have stalled our progress, we are almost moving backward. I believe this is due to a lack of education throughout the country. Almost like everybody is just pretending that they know what is going on, instead of actually participating in life. We are all waiting for someone to step in and fix things, unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. This has inspired me to do whatever I can to make a difference and help people. I realized that no matter your lifestyle, you can find something that you are passionate about. Then take that and find away to help people and make a positive impact on society. As a country, I think that it would be very impactful if we all got up, got out, and helped!
After completing the exhibition there are still a few things that I was left wondering about social movements. Mainly around modern social movements that are currently happening and how we can get involved and make a difference. What are ways that we can take part in social movements that are happening? What are steps we can make to create a positive change in our society today? How can we get involved and make social change in our communities? I think that could have been a impactful thing to explore in this project so we can take action ourselves. Reflecting on the exhibition, I am proud of what we accomplished. We pulled it off. I think that the layout and flow of the exhibition, where we had everything, made a lot of sense to our audience. I belive that everyone who left our exhibition learned something new and I think that is awesome. During the actual exhibition itself, one thing I would have done differently is tried to pull in more people to talk to. I feel like most people would glance at the work and then keep walking. Instead of trying to engage with us and have a conversation about it. One thing as a group I think we could have worked on is having more students direct the audience through the exhibitions so people wouldn't get as lost as they did. then everyone would walk through it the same way to get the correct experience. This would have helped a lot with the timing and confusion. Overall I love how our exhibition turned out and the impact it had on our audience.
We Have Lost The War On Drugs:
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