September 4, 2003

Development as a Reader and Writer & Nature

              The things I remember from my childhood: the crawling charcoal black rounded rectangle blessed with at least 20 pairs of legs, the poisonous looking snake found in the Montessori playground, the brown stick bug found along the sidewalk, and my very own mean, lean, green venus fly trap.  For me, it seemed as if my childhood had been defined in terms of nature.  All the memories I remembered of my childhood are all in one form of nature or the other.  But none of these details should estrange me from the normal kid of today.  Kids are born naturally full of curiosity and the most interesting way to start learning is exploring hands-on.  What other knowledge is more easily accessible than that of nature?  Under the guidance of nature as a teacher, I practiced the use of all my five senses; the playful slope of a young nose notes the sweet smell of dirt, the tender, pink lips of the mouth gently nibble the green mush, curious sparkling eyes full of life seek the undergrowth for the cat that just slinked in, short, slender fingers comb the down, and tiny chiseled ears perk at the sound of birds chirping in the morning.  At about that same time I was reading books such as The Giving Tree, Charlotte’s Web, and all the Eric Carle books complete with lovely, colorful illustrations.  As if nature itself wasn’t pervasive enough, I had to further hold a fetish for horses and dogs of various breeds.  My book shelf was thus infected.  But suddenly nature lost its touch with the young, innocent me as I began to change my routine which consisted of fewer encounters with nature.  However, I did keep in touch with my most beloved first mentor ever by means of that child fetish for horses and dogs.          

In my lifetime so far, I’ve owned two bunnies, one hamster, and one dog.  My dog is currently alive and healthy as well as my appreciation and acknowledgement of nature.  Since the recess days of elementary have been eradicated during my ascension up the ladder of education, I begin to see less and less of nature but still manage to keep in touch through my dog and various nature trips.  Consequently, my writings, as reflected by the lack of practice with the five senses became more two dimensional and colorless.  The streamlined pattern of my writing was also reflected in my thinking; I was no longer thinking in colors, feeling, smelling, touch, and hearing.  All in all, writings became much less descriptive.  The more “primitive” form of recognition was dropped and replaced by a more highly distinguished way to associate word with object; I was as people would call it “growing up”.  

The things I remember from this summer: getting a Toshiba lap top, finally receiving a Nokia 3650 camera phone, and buying a number of inventions from my local Linens ‘n Things retail store.

I have passed the stage of exploration, specifically with nature, and have advanced to a higher level where I study things created by nature: lap tops, textbooks, and intelligent professors.  The things that I am reading are textbooks and books that go beyond the boundaries of nature.  Occasionally, I remind myself that I have to credit nature for first teaching me the essential use of the five senses and sometimes become reminiscent of my younger days; sometimes I’ll just spend a couple minutes to watch a squirrel perform all sorts of acrobatic flips or admire a spider consume its prey.  I’ve always been fascinated by nature and its very simple ways.  Although I have grown, sometimes I resolve to the simplicity of nature to get away from the complexity of having to grow up and learn to associate word with object on a higher level.  Sadly, I have lost much touch with nature, but that is understandable for I have compromised an understanding nature’s simple beauty to understand things pertinent to the changing world of today.  However, nature is still apart of me and will always be.