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Research Paper: How Industry effects the Environment
Major: Biology and World Perspectives
Minor: Women's Studies and French
Hometown: Bartlett, IL; Carmel, IN; and soon-to-be Cassopolis, MI
Main Goals:
To learn, to live, to laugh, and to play... Actually, I
have a few very specific goals to my life inspired by a close friend of
mine. I would like to hike cross a country (which one? I dunno yet)
and write. I would like to summit at least one mountain. I would like
to do social work in a developing country, learn from the people, and
possibly teach them sustainable living techniques. I would like to work
in the outdoor education field for a few years of my life (potentially
in a country other than the US). I would like to speak at least one
other language fluently. I would like to work for a non-governmental
organization in a conservation movement of some sort. I would like to
eventually have a farm in the mountains in a rainy, tree-filled area and
retire there forever. I would like to share my life and my experiences
with loved ones. Too idealistic? Maybe...
Sensational people:
Terry Tempest Williams, Alice Walker, Ella Fitzgerald, Whoopie Goldberg (I've met her!), Chief Seattle, John Muir, SARK, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Ani Difranco, Sarah Perkins, Nara Niles-McCanless, my sisters, my mother, and my father
Tidbits:
I decided to tell you all a little bit about myself through stories and tidbits of my past. Each of these stories is a piece of my past helping to define the strange creature you see before you today. You'll have to guess as to how old I was when each of these things happened...
Thoughts:
Jumping carefully from log to snow-laden floor, my eyes went out of
focus for a moment. I shook my head, staring at the ground before me
and started again to crawl through the forest. I was filled with a
sense of adventure, feeling that at any moment the rabbit I was
following would suddenly appear, and the treasure would be found. My
mother called out my name from the sliding door, but I did not hear. My
eyes were caught by the tiny paw prints laid out before me.
Under the quickly darkening sky, my mother suddenly spotted something
moving on the ground. Slowly, steadily it crept toward the table. My
mother's shrieks sent her three girls to the top of the picnic table.
After a few minutes of our dinner on the table, I laughed at our
silliness and placed my sandal feet back beneath the table. Just as I
moved to a more normal sitting position, my sister noticed a small dark
figure traversing back toward the table. That second visitation from
the tarantula marked an end to an exciting supper as my sister threw
herself into the tent and locked the zipper tightly.
Lunging forward, I felt the fear well up inside me again as I moved into
my solo position. The music seemed to speed up, sending my feet racing
faster. My partner looked at me tentatively, sensing my tension as we
moved to the center of the stage. He gave me the cue I was dreading...
I was to kick my foot over his ducked head and then fall back into a low
dip. Hoping to sweep my foot higher above his head than I had during
the last rehearsal, I put extra force into my vault-change and kick.
SMACK! My foot reached no further than my partner's cheek leaving him
lying on the floor holding his hands to his face. "Oops," was all I
could say as I scooped him up off the floor.
In between the two walls, the fear was more biting than the cold as we
waited for those ahead of us to push through the "chimney" as they
called it. We had been sitting on those mud-caked walls for a little
over a half and hour now. I started to sing. "Shepherd show me how to
go." The words of the hymn echoed through the cavern and soon the groans
had turned to song. Minutes later we too were slipping like Santa
through the chimney.
Edging out on the bare rock, I stopped to lie down and stretch out my
tight limbs, my head swung back, resting on the hot rock surface. I
stared off into the vast distance at reds, yellows, and pinks mingling
together into a warm, heavy purple. The only muscles that chose to move
were my lips into a smile, filled with gratitude for God's beautiful
Love.
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