Every End is a New Beginning
In a lot of different ways this course has helped me “find myself” more and what stances I take on nature as well as other general topics. After writing my own blogs and reading and commenting on the blogs of my classmates, I have become more aware of what my personal beliefs, responsibilities and suitable approaches are for me as a nature interpreter and will share them with you in this post.
Throughout this course, I’ve come to realize I have four concrete beliefs that I’ve developed as a nature interpreter. The first being that history needs to be incorporated into nature interpretation as much as possible. After taking the tour downtown about Guelph’s history, I feel that when history is incorporated into nature interpretation it gives a more in-depth perspective. Like I wrote about in my third blog post it can be easy to forget history or believe that it doesn’t have any relevance to the present day when it completely does. This can also be vital because the more we share about the history relating to nature, the more we can help our audience find their “spark” or share different perspective and stories. This leads me to my second belief that anyone can find some sort of spark within nature. While attending all the labs in this course, I have developed my own spark a lot and found that there are so many ways for someone to find their own spark if they haven’t already. Just like all the labs we did, there are so many different approaches you can take in nature interpretation that if one doesn’t fit or isn’t you favourite there are many others that can.
A photo taken from https://livepulchritudinously.com/2018/05/26/anyone-can-cook/ and edited by me.
My third belief is that while you can help other find their spark, you cannot force someone to be interested in something, you can only influence them to be more aware or spark their curiosity. In my fifth blog post, I touched on how the reading elaborated that our role is to assist and guide our audience without any condescension to point out the beauty in nature. My last belief is that we remember and are more engaged in what interests us. I had the struggle this year of not always taking the courses I was interested in because I didn’t want to branch off from my friends in my program or struggling to decide if I should do masters right after this year since all my friends are. However, I’ve decided that I need to do my own thing next year and am planning to go to Australia with an exchange program to gain experience in either apiculture or horticulture.
In terms of responsibilities, currently, this depends on how much I hold myself accountable. Not all of the following are my responsibilities per se but something I can do to sort of give back to what this course has given me. I would like to continue this blog account in my downtime and through this share and help people find their “spark” and help others “unpack their privileges” while discussing common privileges and guiding others to see the raw beauty in nature themselves. As well as continuing to raise environmental awareness for topics such as climate change protests and suitable living. In my first post I explained how I developed my “spark” and I would love to help others do the same through this blog. My relationship with nature developed at an early age and I was fortunate enough to have spent most of my childhood at my grandparent’s cottage. This being said, I do realize how fortunate I am for this experience, but throughout the course I was able to “unpack my privilege” more and more. Even while writing my second blog about privilege I wasn’t fully aware of how much privilege I do have. Another point I want to further re-iterate is that all of us developed countries, such as our own have the privilege of not being as affected by the effects of climate change. Furthermore, the richer populations and businesses are to blame for most of our CO2 emissions, but its the citizens in less developed countries who are least responsible who will be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Suitable approaches were developed and through this course in terms of how I would go about interpreting nature as well as whether or not I want to pursue nature interpretation. If I were to become a nature interpreter, I would include my own humour suiting it to my audience and stories of my own. The reading about the gift of precision has opened my eyes to how nature interpreters and public speakers, in general, have to apply humour to different audiences in order to keep everyone engaged. Additionally, it’s good to keep in mind how much humour to incorporate because if humour is used constantly throughout it can be too difficult and lack direction. As I have talked about in past blog posts, stories help me learn because they stick with me and I remember them more than a random fact and I think many people can agree with this. While interpreting I would try to make my talks more personal to allow my audience to relate more to the program. Currently, I don’t think I want to pursue nature interpretation as a career, but you never know, I learned a lot of things taking this course and I don’t know what the future holds. Continuing on the topic career, I will remember and keep in mind a lot of the things Dr. Fairweather talked about for applying for jobs in this field. I think two of the most influencial things that I’ll take away is to be yourself when applying for jobs and go the extra mile even if it means putting yourself out there more. I remember back to when he told us a story of the professor who had to fly somewhere for a talk and was trying to pursue a position at their work place but missed his flight and instead joined them to play in their hockey game and made up for it. As well as the story of Dr. Fairweather adding “ I look forward to working for your team” at the end of his email and the professor thinking this was very showing to how he’s ready to be part of their team and work hard. Overall, I just want to gain a career that keeps my interest alive. It may be cheesy and cliché, but if it’s something I love, it won’t feel like work. Yes, there will be roadblocks like any other career, but as long as the passion and drive are there that is what matters most to me.
A photo of me and my roommates on a cabin trip (circa 2018)
I love this. I feel like you were really able to encompass everything I felt about this course in a very articulate way. Reading your post really hit home and made me realize that our time in this course has come to an end. I feel as though now we are all connected through the shared experience of this class that Aaron and Melissa were able to execute so well. We have all had the opportunity to freely explore and grow as nature interpreters and scientists and that is something that I am fully realizing now as I write my last response.
I think your points on ethics were spot on and really reflect all of the lessons that we learned throughout the course, especially in labs. You can see the influence of our visit to the art gallery, the tour of downtown and our workshops together as a class embodied throughout your code of ethics. I think your summarization of these into four main points was a great way to summarize your experience with this course and I really appreciated your post.
I wish you all the best in the future! Great post!
