Choate Natural Setting during semester #1

December 6, 2018

When I was home for Thanksgiving break, my two best friends and I went for a long walk in a nearby trail to catch up. I did not expect nor seek to have any sort of experience with nature, but one found me nonetheless. As my friends had returned to the car, I realized that along the trail I had left my water bottle behind when we had stopped earlier for a break. I went back to look for it and found it on a bridge made on the path to help cross over a stream. As I turned around to go back, sitting on the railing at the other end of the bridge, was a squirrel. Normally, I would just walk past and the animal would dash away as I approached, but this time something happened that never had occurred to me before. As I looked at the squirrel, it began to look back at me, as if it were studying me the same as I was doing to it. I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back when I was having this moment no thoughts of my discussion with my friends, or school, or anything outside that moment crossed my mind. I was truly experiencing this moment, only snapping out of it once the squirrel turned and scurried up a tree, disappearing from sight, leaving me alone to contemplate my experience.

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