Wilderness

Who am I and where do I fit in? The First day of class my definition of wilderness was alone and beautiful, and I didn’t have a definition for ethics, because I didn’t know what that word has meant. Now six weeks later I still believe that the wilderness is beautiful and alone, but it goes so much deeper than that. Ethics is a whole new meaning for life.

I grew up in Dallas, Texas for the majority of my childhood. I had never been camping before, and I didn’t really have a back yard. Growing up things like bears and mountain lions scared the crap out of me. But now, I know that they are probably more scared of us than we are to them. When I moved to Colorado, at first I didn’t appreciate all the beauty it had. I had never seen or have been in such a landscape in so long. I started taking drives through the mountains with my dad. I slowly became more aware of how vast everything was. It was breathtaking. The mountains made me think of everything that life had to offer. During this time I was going through a transition of choosing where to go to college, but after long drives through the mountains I found out where I needed to be.

Wilderness to me now is getting lost in it. Being one with wilderness is what is important to me. I always think about our ancestors who lived on this land naked, and with nothing else except there survivor skills. Humans today can’t even walk outside without clothes on. Snowshoeing in the winter is the best way for me to express my “oneness” with nature. Just being out there, following no one else’s footsteps but yours and the bears. This can also become parallel with life, following your own steps. I am getting masters in Anthropology, but before this class I wasn’t sure because my parents kept telling me that it is not marketable. This class has taught me to forget marketable, I am going to do what makes me happy, and not follow my doctor step dad, and my nurse mom footsteps.

I want to show the world that this is our earth and we need to keep it clean and beautiful, because it is all we have got. This is where ethics is involved. I had no idea where to start with ethics when I fist started this class. In fact I had never really heard the word so much until now. I feel that this is an important topic too. People in high school should be taught this subject, just so they know what this world is about and that ethics play a role in everyone’s daily life. Ethics has become an important factor. I recently bought a bike and I plan on retiring my car for the summer. Ethics is in my daily routine. Whether it is not doing laundry for a month, to save water, or watching the television or reading the books with candles instead of the lights. I work for a housekeeping company and we have recently switched to using organic only products, which in some ways work even better than the old ones. I have also been trying and trying to remember my recycled grocery bag.

Looking back