A class and trip that revolutionized my outlook on life, community, the beauty that lies in the environment, and the influence of stewardship. One of the greatest pieces of advice I received before starting my time at Longwood, was when an opportunity lies before you, seize it. I will forever be grateful that I seized the opportunity to travel with Longwood University to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. When you think of an animal and environmental loving individual, I am probably not what will come to mind. To be honest, animals kind of scare me. Also, I am not a super outdoorsy camp-loving individual. So in my mind, I was not really the ideal person to be travelling to Yellowstone, and that’s what made me want to go even more. I was ready to leap out of my comfort zone and that’s what I did.
This trip challenged me as an individual, a scholar, and a citizen. Science has never truly been my strong suit but this class forced us not to see the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as a small passage from a textbook, but as a real place, full of controversial issues, appreciated by people with immense pride and love for land and wildlife, a land seeping with history, and inspiring a greater hope for tomorrow. I became so immersed in the community, ecosystem, and everything that it entails, that Yellowstone became personal. I am invested in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, even from 2,000 miles away. This trip demonstrated to me what it means to be a citizen of the United States, to be invested in something greater than yourself for the benefit of the whole.
Among growing as a citizen and individual, the multi-disciplinary structure of the course pushed me as a student. Our final project was to write a preview of a novel that surrounded the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, following the example set by Nate Blakeslee in American Wolf. I had never written in a style such as this before and felt uncomfortable with it as I navigated writing my first draft. As I endured finishing the assignment, I grew appreciation for the revision process and how each draft progressed. Below is submission for the assignment titled “Your Story to Tell”. During my time in Yellowstone, I specifically studied fire management, the effects of fire, and fire policy within the park. My “chapter” is based on the material that I gathered and everything that I learned throughout my time in Yellowstone.