Nature Combats the Stresses of School

In my sophomore year of college, the routine had begun to wear on me. After my first co-op I was experiencing doubts and worry over my major. How the hell was 18 year-old me supposed to make a decision that would define the rest of his (my) life? I was interested in computers, of course (I'm a compsci major), but I had other interests as well. If my commitment to this one was shaken by something as small as a monotonous co-op, I wondered if any of my interests were significant enough that they could persist well into adulthood. And worse--at the risk of sounding existential--was it even worth it? It seemed absurd, to worry about something as relatively meaningless as exams or college. A long enough history wouldn't know I was even here let alone whether or not I had a degree.

Every week was a stamp of the last, and each term was more of the same. As soon as an assignment was finished there was another slightly harder one. After every exam there was another chapter to start reading. There was no end in sight, and there still isn't.

In Part V of Last Child, Louv stresses the benefits that students can gain from having a regular connection with nature--a connection that is part of their curriculum. Had I read this before our Fairmount Park class I would have been more skeptical, but now I completely agree with his viewpoint. The gnawing dissatisfaction I experienced last year was marked by the grind of routine and the seeming endlessness of it all, to be sure, but I am now discovering that it was also considerably a matter of environment. Some time away from the roar of traffic and voices relieves a lot of stress.

Even our few hours in the woods each week as part of this class was enough to refresh my desire to learn, not just about nature or computers, but about everything. It's difficult to articulate, since I'm not really sure why some time in the wild every once in a while is inspiration to keep afloat. I will chance that it is simply therapeutic. Hearing birds and streams and learning about the city's history under a green canopy is a miraculous break from the ennui of the city itself. It's a reminder that we're part of something larger. Millennia-old sedimentary rocks and a mind-bogglingly interconnected ecosystem, instead of eliciting questions about the cosmic importance of our endeavors, help us realize that our problems are small.