5 Trees and a Creature - Day 3

Today we went to a place called Cox Arboretum and our mission was to enjoy nature. Of course we had an assignment to complete though. What we had to do was take pictures of five different trees with their leaves, bark, and name plate so that we can identify them later. Also, we had to take a picture of a creature. This only took about 15 minutes and we had taken a whole lot of pictures of turtles. Do to the way things were set up, we had about two hours to just have fun. With a couple of friends we went on our own little adventure through rocks, a maze, and a giant tree tower. 

Afterwards, we did outside yoga. I felt like I was going to melt away into the grass because it was so hot. Eventually a light breeze would brush over my face and I would feel so peaceful. Today turned out to be very peaceful day, even though a turtle tried to bite my friend. 

Bald Cypress Tree

Shumard Oak Tree

Leaves of the Button Bush Tree

Red Sunset Maple Tree

Bark of the Sycamore Tree

Snapping Turtle

My Time At Delco Park - Day 2

Today we embarked on an adventure to Delco Park. We met up with another author named Rob E. Boley and he showed us a different side of writing. What I learned was that writing was not just a big wall of words. For example, we did an activity that used three random words to use as a base for a haiku. My three words were “our, native, and tree.” This is what I got out of it,

Our home is broken

Native to our memories

Tree is my buddy

It was fun to come up with a random haiku from random words. Also, I learned that we could also make dialogue from random words. This time, we used a whole sentence instead of three random words. My words were, “No other region in the Eastern US can compete with the Smokies for growing tall trees.” I created a dialogue that started with a dark conversation but it was hard coming up with sentences that made sense.

“NO one could defeat the darkness of death.”

“OTHER than me of course. I protect the Region of Hope.”

“REGION of hope? Hope is nothing but an illusion designed to hide the truth of the fact that death is inevitable.”

“IN the light, through the darkness, there is always hope.”

“THE fact that you still hold on to that myth, shows that you are already drowned in darkness.”

“EASTERN.”

“US?”

“CAN you please stop saying random stuff?”

“COMPETE with the logic of truth. You started it!”

“WITH the light, right?”

“THE idiot. What is wrong with you?”

“SMOKIES my homies.”

“FOR death.”

“GROWING up to die. Wait, why am I talking about death?”

“TALL you stood but now you die.”

“TREES will grow from my death. Hope lives on.”

This activity showed me another aspect in writing. Also, it will help me come up with ideas when it comes to writing.  

The Journey Begins - Day 1

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…” –H.D. Thoreau

The beginning of this journey began with this quote. As a group, we gave our own interpretation of what to “live deliberately” meant. To me, to live deliberately means to live life “doing” rather than thinking about the “what ifs.” It was only 15 minutes into STEMmersion and I already was thinking about life. Living deliberately pondered in my mind the entire day. After we discussed our thoughts to the class, we did an activity to get to know each other. We drew our hands on a piece of paper, put our names in the palm, and wrote five things about ourselves on the fingers. Once that was completed, we walked around the classroom and introduced ourselves.

Then, we did an activity using blocks. This was to help us with team work in my opinion. I also see it as a way to visualize the steps on the journey of life. A man named Scott Geisel spoke to us about nature writing. He gave me the inspiration to look at nature in a different perspective. Even when I went outside for recess, I stood still and just embraced nature. It was perfect timing considering that we were going to do yoga but our yoga instructor couldn’t make it. Even though this was the first day on my journey, I have learned a lot.