Monday, October 19, 2009

Youtube Post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo9i2xgPRRU&feature=related
CHECK IT OUT!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

A Career in Nature vs. A 9-5 Job

Today during our class, Thayer Walker was nice enough to make time in his busy schedule to discuss his life as a writer and how he is involved with nature in many different ways. Now of course the speech was full of interesting stories and some crazy wildlife pictures, but the idea for this response paper came to me towards the end of his speech. When open questions were allowed, Walter asked a simple but very burning question (may not be the exact words but this is how I remember it): It’s great to see you’re really enjoying what you’re doing traveling all over the world as a writer for different magazines, how is the job in terms of supporting yourself, how is it financially? Thayer then went into his answer about how he had a $1 million dollar business with his buddies painting houses, but he just felt there was more to seek in the world, and travel writing became his passion. This is what brings me to my main thought about this: Is nature powerful enough to alter one’s perspective about the world and change the way someone lives their life? Also, what is successful? Because successful may just be a term for materialism, or can you be successful in ways that Thayer is? Although nature isn’t something that can communicate with humans to convince them to be free spirited and travel the world, it is the primal ways of nature that attract humans in every which way.

            Because I am in high school and this takes up most of my life, I’m going to refer to a PSAT question I had the other day: What is success? Is there a certain point in which someone has become successful? Analyze the question and answer the question on the essay paper given. Using evidence from the novel, Into the Wild, I explained how in the eyes of many, success is something that is shown off by material things such as money, cars, and house, but in reality, successful can be a life goal that you set. Therefore, in Into the Wild, the main character’s life goal is to travel to live in Alaska, and if he had made it to live to this day, he would definitely consider himself because of the goal that he had set. This parallels to Thayer in the fact that, he put aside money and the situation that many would look at as “successful” and gave it all away, because he knew there was more out there. And in terms of this, I respect Mr. Walker for the decision he has made. There is something about nature that just makes it a magnet to humans. Maybe it’s the fact that humans want more primality in their life? Could be considering many feel trapped from a “9 to 5 behind the desk job”. Another reason this could happen would be the ideals of nature and how people are so attracted to the Romanticism of pastoral nature, that they go great lengths to try and achieve the perfect description of pastoral nature. I think because of the stress that behind the desk job’s bring, people look for an escape, and a lot of the time the escape can be nature, almost giving the person self-realization.

            As for me, right now all I think about is being successful, materially. Although, I would always give myself a chance to see what I really truly enjoy doing, something that could even involve nature (nature isn’t always for me, but you never know). All I know is that I would like to be truly happy and passionate about what I do. This is why I believe nature was a great escape for Thayer, because now he has magazine companies paying for certain trips so he can climb Mount Kilimanjaro, cage dive with sharks, and learn more and more about the world in general. Nature’s primality attracts those who are looking for an escape from normal every day lives and dive into something that has endless possibilities.