Ecoduction

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up there, I learned how to navigate cities, ride the subway, and jaywalk. I moved once when I was five from my home on 298 Garfield place to 524 8th St and I lived in an apartment on 5th St for a year in between. I have spent all eighteen years of my life living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, known for its family friendly environment. I have learned to love the energy and bustle of the city and to not be overwhelmed by the busy streets and endless noise. Unfortunately, I never had the need to be able to drive so I’m sadly lacking in that skillset. 

Coming from the city, I would feel lonely and depressed in rural areas when I was younger. During the holidays, my family would celebrate at our family friends’ house in middle-of-nowhere Vermont and I would enjoy the rare opportunity to play in deep, pristine snow, untainted by city sludge. However, the dark, endless, quiet of the surrounding trees frightened me and made me feel small.

I spent my summers at various wilderness summer camps in Vermont, but mostly at a group of camps called Farm & Wilderness. Here, I learned the value of the alternative energy of the woods and the different opportunities for exploration it presents. I continued this thread of rural living when I went to a school in Leadville, Colorado for a semester. Despite being in a frigid empty landscape, I no longer felt the lonely feeling of leaving the city. At my semester school, I learned about my body’s resilience and the pleasure I derive from living in extreme conditions. Utah desert canyons and snow swept mountains were my favorite places to be. 

Before I leave for college in Vermont and after I graduated my high school in Brooklyn, I find myself in another environment. I have lived here for four months and I have explored much of the surrounding landscape. To me, the community of Hawthorne Valley Farm matched with the solitary homestead in the woods is an ideal combination of what I have loved about my places in the past. I can explore and be off by my lonesome and come back to a large family of friends who all belong to a greater, welcoming community.