Naturalist Essay
Course: ENV102
Instructor: Professor Kimberly Frye
By: Grant J. Chun
For my 45 minute walk, I decided to go to Oz Park in Lincoln Park, a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The park is right near DePaul so the location appeared to be perfect. In addition, I used to walk there alone a couple times in the past due to the abundance of trees and the sense of tranquility that I obtained when I was there. While I was at Oz Park, trees were not the only things that I encountered. I also came across the wind that blew by to make the trees sway, people that were sitting down and having a good time playing sports, dogs running to catch the ball, the warm sunlight that shined through the tree, and the clouds that moved slowly up in the sky. To me, every little thing seemed to be a part of nature in general. I considered people and the dogs as part of the nature too because they are living beings.
Whenever I take the time to go on a walk like I did to the park, I definitely notice a lot of different things. The first thing I noticed is how peaceful I felt. Due to my duties as a student and other obligations, we tend to quickly pass by the trees because we are thinking about other matters. However, when I really took the full 45 minutes to take every image and feeling that I received from the park into my mind, it just made me feel so tranquil. It was like I was in my own little world. Another thing I noticed was just how beautiful everything was. People can say that it’s just a park and there’s not much to say besides that it has a lot of trees and grass. But I noticed that during the walk, all the parts of nature that I saw were at their highest levels of beauty. In terms of beauty, I am talking about how they were all in perfect harmony. From the trees showing their green leaves to the families having fun, everybody seemed so happy and joyful. To me, such a scene is considered as beautiful. Thirdly, I realized how safe I felt. Because of the relaxed feeling that I was getting from the walk, I felt like I was protected and warm. It’s an experience that I have always felt whenever I took a walk, and it made me really glad to feel that emotion once again.
In terms of how I think about nature around me, I think it’s beautiful. However the beauty of nature is clearer to me when I am at certain places where nature blossoms like a Botanic Garden or a park. For example, I have a hard time considering downtown Chicago to be exquisite because the busy and rushed feeling that I get never made me get the chance to enjoy nature in any sort of a way. On the other hand, when I am at a park, my mind does dive into the nature. I feel like whenever I am outside to do nothing but enjoy the outdoors, I completely let go of everything to absorb the sensation of letting the environment around me take control. It’s an indescribable type of emotion. However, it just makes me feel like I am absolutely free from everything.
Personally, I think my interaction with people and walking past trees everyday during school are the ways that I interact with nature. I acknowledge that my interaction is not as outdoor-like as hiking. However, as I have stated earlier, I believe every living thing is part of nature. So when I talk with people and have a good time with them, that itself is interaction as nature – to – nature. I am also considered to be nature so it is definitely an interaction between natures. But when I travel, I do interact with the surrounding nature by taking part in activities as whitewater rafting, hiking, swimming, and many other activities.
My walk is more similar to the interaction described in Muir’s writing. I felt this way because a lot of emotion came out of me when I took the walk. Muir’s segment really gave me a lot of emotional descriptions that made me feel like I was taking the trip with him. He was very metaphorical and descriptive about his experience. Just like him, I can say that my walk was also filled with emotional descriptions.
The writings of Kuo and Muir differ in the way they describe nature. Muir is very metaphorical and descriptive when he talked about his experience at the canyons of Tanaya or the even right after he arrived at Yosemite. I was able to tell from the beginning that he even considered lifeless things to be beautiful such as a rock. This was clearly shown in his writing when he said, “They [Rocks] are dear friends, and seemed to have warm blood gushing through their granite flesh; and I love them with a love intensified by long and close companionship” (Muir 19 – 20). Muir really values even small things like a rock and gives such an emotion-filled description as he breathed life into nature itself. I really felt like the rocks were alive. Kuo, on the other hand, was very analytical and research – oriented. It didn’t really contain any metaphors or a lot of emotion to pull the reader into the writer’s world like Muir did. But Kuo definitely showed that he researched a lot as a lot of his contents were statistic and fact – based.
My overall experience of taking the 45 minute walk was very enjoyable. I was able to obtain the emotional connection with nature during my nice walk through the park. This assignment has also made me realize that it is important for us to spend more time interacting with the nature. It also made me relax from everything as well. I hope to take another walk with the nature soon.
