Life in a Northern Town

I grew up in Connecticut, I was actually back there this summer and I never realize just how much I missed it until I am there. I lived in a town that was probably 80% state forest, untouched nature just begging to be explored. As a child I spent every second of sunlight outside exploring and wandering my yard. We lived across the street from a beach, really a pond but it was the local swimming hole, but I was always out looking for turtles and catching crawfish. I loved to watch them, see how they moved or interacted with eachother and other fish. One of my fondest memories is my back yard, there used to be a small slow moving creek that ran through a portion of our back yard. In the middle if this tiny creek was a giant rock and laying on the rock was a try. Ryan (my brother) and I weren't really allowed to play back there but we always did, we would often pretend it was a pirate ship, climbing all over the rock and tree and splashing in the water. I drove by my old house while I was in Connecticut over the summer, I was sad to see that it was changed a lot. I had to fight off the urge to run into the back yard to see if our creek and "priate ship" had made it through the new owners yard rehaul. I love being in Connecticut because it slows me down, I often catch myself rushing even when I don't have to, when I am in Connecticut, in its nature I am able to slow down and take everything in, it's really something special.

Coming into Colloquium I hope to be able to maybe learn how to better harness this slow pace, in todays world I feel like I have to rush rush everywhere most of the time there isn't even a need to rush. I want to be able to reconnect with nature and get that feeling that I used to feel so long ago when I was out within nature exploring, finding things, learning things.  Being an Environmental Studies major I hope to reignite this passion and carry it on nwith me through out my career.

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