I grew up in a house tucked away in the woods with few neighbors and many animals. I can remember plenty of snow days spent sledding down the crisp white hills that the deer would graze on when the weather was warm. It was here in the woods and hills behind my house that I experienced many of what Rick Bass refers to as “lightning-spark transformative epiphanies”(2). I spent almost every day outside, whether it was climbing the tall green trees that shed their golden leaves in the fall, or picking the pale yellow and purple flowers for my mom when they bloomed in the spring. There were never any kids my age in my neighborhood so my closest friends were the trees, rocks, hills, and flowers that I spent everyday with. I particularly loved the spring when the cherry trees, planted along the woods, would blossom and the flowers would fall from the trees creating a pink carpet of petals covering the ground like a blanket. I would twist the flowers together to make myself a crown and my imagination would run from there with all the dreams of a young girl wishing to be a princess. All of my “playtime” truly instilled in me a love and passion for the natural world at a young age.

When I started elementary school, I would ride the bus to and from school, which was always an adventure everyday. As other girls and boys bantered, I would stare out the window and admire the trees as they transitioned through the seasons, and the flowers as they came into bloom in the spring. On sunny days, I would look out with appreciation for the bright sunshine and the crystal blue skies. On the seemingly endless bus rides home, I returned eagerly to the welcoming beauty of Nature. Many of the girls and boys on the bus did not share this passion for the environment that I did though. To my disappointment, many of my fellow schoolmates had no respect for the environment, it was something they took for granted. They did not care if there was harm being done to the environment, they had their “more important problems” in their very busy lives. All of this shocked me though because the natural world was someplace I cherished; it was a part of my childhood that I loved and enjoyed; it saddened me that it was being polluted and destroyed.

In middle school, I started to develop the same indifferent attitudes as the children on the bus. I began to forget the experiences I had shared with the world around me because the stress of getting good grades in school and maintaining friendships started to weigh down on me. I rarely roamed the hills behind my house or climbed trees anymore, instead I went to shopping malls and movie theaters to pass the time. My private place of tranquility stood alone, lonesome for the young girl to return. My sense of environmental awareness seemed foolish to me at the time compared to all the drastic changes that were occurring in my everyday life. I thought that I simply did not have time to be concerned about the environment. I had truly lost my relationship with the natural world around me, but that would soon change when I entered high school.

In high school, I discovered my own very independent way of thinking and living. Suddenly, with that independence, encouraged by my teachers, parents, and even some of my friends, I found myself wandering back to the woods behind my house. It was there that I reunited with my long lost companion, the natural world from my childhood. I returned to its company whenever I needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of my everyday life. The cherry trees bloom ever so vibrantly now with their pink colors. They seem so much more alive to me now, than when I was a child. I feel blessed when the deer come to stand upon the ledge behind my house to eat the greens that grow there as they scavenge for winter food. I return to my magical environment often now and I still smile as I walk past spots that hold fond memories of my childhood.

My environmental consciousness was heightened even more as I sat in my American Literature class pouring through many readings regarding the subject of nature. As I read these stories, I began to connect them with everything from my childhood camping trips which went from the seashores of Maine to the mountain tops of New Hampshire. I can once again be the young girl who camped by the lake in New Hampshire and raced every morning to feed the ducks who would line the shore to get their share of bread I would throw. I also connect back to the woods surrounding my home and the enjoyment of the shade of the trees in my front yard. All the discussions on the subject of nature also reminded me of that period in middle school when I had barely had any of the environmental awareness that was so important to me as a child. All of these led me to think of how I had become like many indifferent Americans. We may listen to many speeches about environmental awareness, but for most people that message goes in one ear and out the other.

Most Americans act in a way similar to what Jonathan Franzen describes in his essay, “My Bird Problem.” He writes, “I keep a tight rein on my environmental consciousness, confining it, ideally, to the ten minutes per year when I write my guilt-assuaging checks to groups like the Sierra Club” (4). In our society, very few Americans act on messages of environmental awareness. We hear these messages, but we do not take them to heart. The vast majority of people think that they are already doing all they can and are too distressed by environmentalists’ message to take action. As Franzen states, “But Gore's message was so disturbing that I was nearly back to my apartment before I could think of some reasons to discount it. Like: wasn't I already doing more than most Americans to combat global warming”(4)?

Our society has long believed that we should control and conquer nature. This conviction convinces us that it is our destiny, and in a way, our God given right to exploit nature in a way that pleases us and to disregard the issues that may arise from this exploitation. Today, we pollute the environment because more environmentally friendly ways would be getting in the way of our big corporations’ profit. Our society has forgotten that humans and nature are interconnected; that if bad things occur in nature, the effects will eventually be felt by us. We are already seeing the signs of the harm that have taken place in our environment with the melting of the polar ice caps, our oceans becoming polluted, floating garbage dumps, and ever-increasing unnatural weather patterns. As humans, the only way we can ensure our future on earth is to reverse the behaviors that most Americans have followed. We must become familiar with our connection to the environment and defend it. In order for the world around us to be enjoyed for generations to come, we must guarantee that our children will have the same beautiful experiences of the world around them, just like I did when I was a child.

Works Cited
Bass, Rick. “A Texas Childhood.” The Best American Spiritual Writing 2004. Phillip Zaleski, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 2004
Franzen, Jonathan. “My Bird Problem.” The New Yorker. August 8 and 15, 2005