Rachel’s Wish
Editor’s note: Rachel wrote the following essay for her college application to the University of Maine, where she planned to study Wildlife Ecology.
I grew up in a family that values nature and time spent in the outdoors, so it is no surprise that I am interested in studying Wildlife Ecology as a career. In fact, I can’t remember a time when we did not go on camping trips, since I was only six weeks old the first night I slept in a tent. My parents carried me on hikes in the woods as an infant, and before I could even walk, they tell me I had “hiked” on the Appalachian Trail in nine states. As I grew older, we enjoyed many wilderness hiking, backpacking, and canoeing adventures in the Smokies, the Adirondacks, the White Mountains, and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Until I entered elementary school, the idea that other families didn’t spend so much time in the woods never occurred to me. Being in nature and feeling connected to it was simply part of who I was.
When I learned that many of my classmates had never been camping before in their lives, I was honestly baffled. As I progressed through school, and realized that some of my classmates still had never been camping, or even truly hiking, I was completely astonished. I didn’t understand why most of my friends were afraid when I’d pick up a daddy-longlegs at recess. Surely they should be familiar with the harmless arachnids! Didn’t they recognize the “spider” from waking up in a tent after rain to see them clustered under the rain fly? How could someone go through so much of their life without seeing nature at its purest? Eventually I understood that some families just don’t care for nature, and some even fear it. I remember a time that I was at a friend’s house and she screamed in genuine fear because of an ant.
I am thankful that my family isn’t like that. My parents have raised me with a deep respect and love for the natural world, and it pains me when I see people doing everything they can to separate themselves from it. Like my famous namesake author, observing even the smallest creatures within the web of life fascinates me. I once stood out in a light rain for several minutes to watch a spider working tirelessly to construct its web to catch food for the night.
I want the rest of humanity to feel like this. I want the rest of humanity to love the environment and feel our connection to it instead of seeking to suppress or control it. I want to learn everything I can so that I can make informed choices to preserve and revive the parts of our world that our careless or ignorant actions have put in harm’s way. A hard-earned degree will be my tool to help the natural world I fell in love with as a baby in a backpack.
