Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011

ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
Earth, Education, and Experiences: A Lifes Journey
The only journey is the one within -Rainer Maria Rilke

1. A Natural Childhood
Wet, sticky mud adheres lovingly to my legs as I trudge triumphantly through my
grandmothers farm field. Childish curiosity about nature spurs me forward, and I feel a sense of
elation at being so completely immersed in the earth. My lifes journey began with regular
exposure to the environment at my grandmothers farm and my familys cottage, which later led
me into an environmental education. My education has taught me many things about myself and
the world around me. In the future, I want to extend my academic knowledge to include more
practical experiences. My rationale for choosing the journey metaphor was due to my propensity
to prepare extensive plans for my life. Consequently, planning has been one of the barriers
preventing me from returning to my state of childhood innocence.
Two places where I had the opportunity for experiential learning with nature as a child
were my grandmothers farm and my familys cottage. Memories of these experiences continue
to colour my current perceptions of the environment. Abram (1993) notes how the basic idea of
perception requires us to be engaged with that which we are viewing; it is never a purely
objective exercise. During my childhood, I felt extremely attuned to the natural world. I would
take long, solitary walks around the edges of the fallow fields at my grandmothers farm, with
the wind tousling my hair, the sun shining on my face, and the sound of birdsong all around me.
By finding peace and refuge outside, I came to believe that people should value nature purely
because it exists; I could not fathom damaging the beauty around me, and I did not understand
the economic value of environmental products and services. However, Dillard (1982) points out
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
that wilderness is a highly valued commodity to urbanites desirous of refuge from the stresses
and pressures of the city.
My familys cottage was the first place where I was able to feel connected to the idea of
wilderness. Despite being a leaning, lopsided little cabin amidst a grove of cedars, I loved
spending time at the cottage because it appeared so diametrically opposed to my home in the
suburbs. The mornings induced ecstasy with their brilliant sunrises and the evenings sang sweet
lullabies with their choir of stars. The feeling of roughing it out in the bush pervaded all of my
cottage experiences, as electricity and running water were not available. Returning to my home
in the suburbs always felt fake and confining after the wide-open spaces I had left behind, a
sentiment shared by many North Americans (Cronon 1995). Kellert (1997) also discusses the
anxiety and depression many people experience when they are separated from nature. Over time,
my sense of being attuned to nature waned with my increasing vigilance in planning my life.
The journey metaphor suits my lifes story because of my early inclination towards
extensive life planning, although this distanced me from my childhood experiences with nature.
Around the age of fifteen, I dedicated myself to achieving scholarly excellence and physical
fitness. I clearly remember setting the goal for myself to receive above-average marks. To reach
this goal, I read books on study strategies and structured my time around the demands of
schoolwork. Similarly, my efforts towards physical fitness began with the setting of a goal. I
experienced many obstacles, both financial and emotional, along this route. The receding
horizon of both scholarly and physical excellence meant that I continued to pursue both late into
my university career. However, they caused me to feel distant from the places where I grew up.

Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
Years of carefully apportioning my time and planning for the future meant that I had less
time to spend in the two places where I felt most in touch with nature. Losing my sense of place
was devastating for my peace of mind; stress was a constant, itchy intruder under my skin and I
longed to be free from its devastating effects (Everden 1998). Like a homing pigeon seeking to
realign an internal imbalance, I flew towards the Environment and Resource Studies (ERS)
program at the University of Waterloo (Everden 1998). I was drawn to the programs discourse
of environmental preservation; it seemed to fit with my perceptions, borne of childhood, that
nature had intangible value and was worthy of protection.
The reason that I did not choose the connection to nature metaphor as a framework for
this essay is intimated here. My unity with nature has always been at the peripheral of my life
plans and has been a guiding, rather than defining, aspect of my life. I do intend to spend more
time outside in the future. However, more important than my need to spend time in reflective
contemplation of nature is the practical necessity of a job. The conflict between these two
factors is evident in what I have learned in ERS.
2. An Environmental Education
Despite my early planning efforts, ERS was unexpected in terms of both format and
where it led me. However, I have learned more than I ever thought possible about myself and
the world around me in this program. The format of ERS was more open than I had anticipated,
and this forced me to identify my own academic interests and strengths. I found that I was
interested in theories about the world and could write reasonably coherent papers. Accordingly,
my electives were scattered across a broad array of different topics, ranging from English to
Macroeconomics. My fear of failure meant that I avoided technical courses which I perceived to
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
be more difficult (e.g. Geographic Information Systems, Biology). Accordingly, I have not
developed the skills required for a job working outdoors. Although this was what I had
originally envisioned for my future, I now see myself headed more into the world of academia.
Putting an equal amount of effort into all of my undergraduate courses allowed me to maintain a
high overall average, and my professors encouraged me to apply for graduate school in my final
year. Consequently, I will be entering into the Tourism Policy and Planning Masters program at
the University of Waterloo next fall. This was the second unexpected component of ERS; I
never expected it to lead me into more advanced studies.
My desire to attend graduate school is a direct result of the many things that I have
learned about myself and the world around me in ERS. For example, I have learned that I can be
a critical thinker. This has required me to step back and rationally evaluate the dominant ideas in
our society. Professor Larson called these ideas memes during the lecture on the metaphor of
the monkey mind; memes are insidious cultural units in our society which spread through
repetition. During my time in university, I have become less passive when reading over
newspaper stories and have begun to actively evaluate the source and aim of that information.
Proctor (2001) supports the importance of knowing the social context of information because
even facts can be influenced by human values. Although I feel it is important to be cognizant of
societal memes, I did not use this metaphor to frame this discussion for several key reasons.
I focused on the journey theme in this discussion because of the inapplicability of memes
to my entire life story. The discussion on memes circled around finding the middle path between
too many and too few ideas as the motivating force for taking action. New ideas have always
been a source of interest to me. Like my early childhood experiences in the mud of my
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
grandmothers farm, curiosity has driven me to explore interesting, unfamiliar concepts through
books and journal articles. However, these ideas are only the small puzzle pieces which form the
overall plan for my life. The journey metaphor is much more accurate for conceptualizing my
past, current, and future situation because ideas have helped to guide my life rather than shape it.
Ideas that I have learned in ERS about the world around me are the second factor driving
my interest in graduate school. These ideas have come from both classroom work and
discussions with my very intelligent peers. First, classroom work has shown me the importance
of words in shaping my perspectives as well as the perspectives of society. Chawla (1991)
identifies how language has the power to create ideas and can shape our perceptions of reality.
For example, I discussed earlier how I felt towards wilderness at my familys cottage. I thought
of it as a place quite distant from my home in the suburbs, and regarded it as more worthy of
protection than my suburban backyard. I also felt brave and powerful when living what I
regarded to be the frontier life (Cronon 1995). Cronon (1995) wrote a brilliant article which
resonated with me on each of the above points. The article made me realize that it is important
to address environmental impacts in places where human-caused damage is most significant,
rather than focusing only on the impractical desire to protect pristine wilderness (Cronon 1995).
I have also gained many ideas about the world around me through discussions with my
peers in ERS. They have caused me to realize that I do not necessarily have to plan rigidly to
make progress towards my future. They have also allowed me to experience a variety of
different perspectives on society and the environment. Their most significant contribution to my
life has been to encourage me to take action on what I have been learning, and this is reflected in
my vision for my future.
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
3. A Holistic Future
It has only been in university that I have begun to critically reflect on my own perspective
of nature, as well as the problems inherent in this approach. Although I strongly believe that
nature has value independent of humans, I have never actively exerted myself to create
environmental change. This situation is morally upsetting when I consider the many academic
journals which outline the culpability of regular citizens in efforts to preserve the environment. I
believe that my inertia is partly a result of my aesthetic, superficial love of nature and the
structure of our society. I do not provide these reasons as an excuse for my passivity; instead, I
present them here in the context of how I intend to change in the future.
First, my aesthetic love of nature has prevented me from undertaking a constructivist
approach to environmental issues. A constructivist approach would require that I have a full
understanding of both the facts and the perceptions surrounding environmental problems
(Proctor, 1999). However, my superficial knowledge and limited first-hand experiences with
biology and ecology means that my understanding is limited to human perceptions of
environmental problems. Field courses, a summer job providing technical training, or
volunteering with nature organizations such as the RARE Charitable reserve in Cambridge
would help me to reach this goal. I also hope to have the opportunity to take more practical
courses during my graduate career. Ultimately, these actions should help me to find a job
working outside and allow me to contribute, in some small way, to environmental preservation.
The structure of our society has also contributed to my current inability to take action on
environmental problems, despite my awareness of these issues. Researchers have found that the
current generation of youth are more focused on their personal success than becoming involved
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
in enacting social and environmental (Hume 2010). Additionally, there is an overwhelming and
often contradictory amount of information available on these issues (Hume 2010). Unable to
apply the precautionary principle to my own life, I have remained immobilized and have not take
action on any environmental issues. The precautionary principle encourages action on issues
which could be problematic before there is complete evidence in support or denial of this belief
(Migone 2007). I have also felt the pressure to succeed independently is a far greater priority
than working with others in the community to tackle common problems.
In the future, I intend to change my own apathetic approach to environmental issues
through the help and encouragement of my peers in ERS. There is one student in particular who
has pushed me to undertake new ventures and put me back in touch with my childhood
experiences with nature. First, he was the catalyst for my application to graduate school because
our long discussions revealed to me how much I love learning new theories and the process of
writing. He also showed me that it is not necessary to plan everything to progress towards
certain goals. As he has taught me spontaneity and flexibility, I have slowly grown away from
my rigid planning focus to include a more holistic vision of my lifes journey. This has helped to
remind me of the places where I grew up and where I felt truly connected to nature. He also
shares many of my childhood experiences, because he lived near my familys cottage for a period
during his youth. I feel that with his encouragement and support, I will be able to move towards
a more holistic future balancing my scholarly learning with more practical applications of my
knowledge.
The journey metaphor applies to my lifes story because of my propensity to plan, while I
have only been guided by my connection to nature and new ideas. I have found that planning is
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
not always effective because of the unexpected things that can happen; one of the best examples
of this is my application to graduate school. I have learned an incredible number of things about
myself and the world around me from my ERS undergraduate degree, and I have gained the firm
desire to apply my learning in more practical ways in the future. My free writing and
mindfulness exercises each day have been very valuable in contributing to this discussion on my
life. Free writing allowed me to pound out my ideas as they came, fast and furious and hot,
from my pen. My mindfulness exercises allowed me to step back and critically examine the
context and source of my thoughts. From these sessions, I determined that many of my current
perspectives developed during my early childhood experiences with nature.
As I sit and ponder how best to conclude this brief essay, my mind drifts back to the days
spent on my grandmothers farm. The image of my young self moving through the thick mud
with joy and determination begins to blur and meld with my vision for my future self. Spring is
a tangible taste on the tip of my tongue, tantalizing in its rich, living textures. My senses are
again alive to the world: listening, alert, and open. Birds call coyly to me from the treetops and I
reply with a joyful whistle of my own devising. I hope to use the positive emotion that I feel
from this image to guide my future scholarly endeavours in graduate school. No longer will I
remain closeted away behind closed doors with my books and journal articles; I wish to take my
knowledge and apply it in more practical ways. With the help of my peers, I believe that this
dream is a distinct possibility and could lead me to a job involving hands-on work experiences
with nature.

4. Additional References
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Maria Legault (ID# 20266913)

March 24, 2011
ERS 410
Professor Brandon Larson
Hume, M. 2010. Compassion without action: Examining the young consumers consumption and
attitude to sustainable consumption. Journal of World Business 45(4): 385-394.
Kellert, S.R. 1997. Kinship to mastery: Biophilia in human evolution and development.
Washington: Island Press. 249 pp.
Migone, A. 2007. Hedonistic consumerism: Patterns of consumption in contemporary capitalism.
Review of Radical Political Economics 39(2): 173-200.