Consciousness. Appreciation. Responsibility.

#NatureWritingChallenge Topic: How my public lands experience has changed in the last 15 years. Check out the challenge here.

(Note: Rules for this challenge include writing, unfiltered, on the topic for no more than one hour. Please forgive typos and incomplete thoughts)

15 years ago, I didn’t know that public lands existed. Sure, I had heard about Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, but I didn’t have a consciousness that these places were interconnected, that they were publicly owned, and that they were accessible to me.

Consciousness.

When I was younger, my family took trips with a purpose. We would hop in the car or get on a plane to visit family, to go to weddings, to attend conferences, to do service projects, but only rarely to get away to explore. I can remember two distinct trips where the purpose was to get away and to connect with nature. Both of those trips took me and my family to Canada.

Now, I certainly don’t want to come off as if I am complaining here – I had some awesome experiences in my youth on the road with my family. I remember fondly my dad’s maroon-ish conversion van with hookups for the 14-inch tube television to which he would connect the Sega Genesis and VHS (fun times). I remember hiking in Pukasaw National Park – a beautiful Canadian park that we visited upon the recommendation of my father’s co-worker – and overlooking Lake Superior and feeling like a speck in the world. And the ranger talks about what to do if we encountered a bear.
At that point in my life, however, each place was discrete – not a part of a whole. Each one was a foreign wonder that seemed… distant.

The point is this – a love of / identity in public lands was not something that was given to me. It was something that I claimed for myself as an adult after having the opportunity to experience them and to learn about them. This all really happened for me within the last 7 years. My parents didn’t really know about public lands, and therefore, I didn’t either.
Unfortunately, I know that this aspect of my story is not unique. Many people grow up not knowing about public lands.

Appreciation.

My mom if from Birmingham, Alabama – born and raised. I remember her taking me and my sister to the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church (the site of an infamous bombing in which 4 little girls were killed) near the Birmingham Civil Rights Park. Being there was an amazing experience! I had no clue at the time that this area was part of / related to the National Park Service.

As I began to learn more about the parks and lands, they have become an interconnected place in which I have an identity. Seeing them and learning about them makes me appreciate them more and creates a thirst to continue to immerse myself even deeper in their discovery. Also, knowing that these are places that will be preserved and cared for so that future generations can enjoy them as well makes me all the more excited about sharing them with others.

I think that one of the main things that has changed for me, really over the past 7 years, is a development of an appreciation for our public lands. Each place tells a part of the story of who I am as an American citizen. Each park gives a glimpse into who we all are and what we all share in terms of our culture and our history and our common heritage.

Responsibility

Each time that I discover a new place within these interconnected lands, I feel a deeper connection and sense of pride. I feel fortunate to be able to explore, and a level of responsibility to ensure that those that I care about know about these places too.

So, as my hour ends, I just want to say: Get out, learn and explore! The parks are for me! The parks are for you! These are our parks!