Brooke Jacobe - Treks and Texts

Over the course of this semester, I have realized that I do need wild spaces, but more importantly, I need to find them in my everyday life. It is easy to think of “wild” as something far away or something you have to travel to experience, but I have started to see that it does not have to be a flight away. Spending time outside, whether at the nature center or on my own, made me more aware of how different I feel in a natural environment. It forces me to slow down, and I notice things I would normally overlook. One place that really represents this for me is Crested Butte, Colorado, which I included a photo of because it is my happy place. Being on a hike there, surrounded by mountains and open space, I feel more present and clear minded. It is one of the few times where I am not thinking about everything I have to do or checking my phone, I am just there. That feeling is why I think I need wild. It is not about escaping life, but about bringing that same sense of presence into my d...

Last Tuesday, our volunteering at the nature center was canceled because of the rain, so we regular class on campus instead. Even though the rain had stopped by class time, the ground was still too wet and muddy for us to work. In class we were met with candy as usual and a collection of poems picked out by Professor Williams. One poem that stood out to me was "The Tree Agreement" by Elise Paschen. The poem centers on a dispute between neighbors over a tree that one person calls a “weed tree,” while the speaker argues that it has been there long before them. Instead of seeing it as something that should be removed, the speaker views it as part of the natural environment that deserves to stay. To me, the poem highlights the idea that we should respect nature as something native and already established, rather than something we control or get rid of when it becomes inconvenient. What made the class more interesting was that we turned the poem into a short skit. It was funny to ...

My best photo captures a moment that I talked about in one of my previous journal entries. It was the sunset on Lake Travis after a stormy day. I was with all of my best friends, and it was a great moment that I know I will cherish deeply with this photo. Based on the other photos in this collection, sunsets are clearly some of my favorite landscapes and I will never get sick of a Texas sunset.

This Easter, I spent the weekend with my family on Lake Austin, and it ended up being incredibly relaxing. While we had hoped for blue skies and warm sun, April showers brought gloomy and rainy weather, but that is what actually made the weekend more memorable.  On Friday evening, we took the boat out to Ski Shores, a lakeside restaurant where you can park your boat and eat right on the water. Despite the incoming rainstorm, it was packed with people still enjoying the lake views. After dinner, we headed back to the house and sat on the patio. Almost immediately after, a heavy storm hit and began to pour. We made it back just in time. The next day was still gray and overcast, which set the scene for such a relaxing day. I spent most of my day outside reading The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, which funny enough was set in Austin. I had not picked up a book in a while, and it felt great to disconnect from my phone and sit outside, surrounded by the quiet lake with the sound of...

Over the past three weeks, we've been volunteering at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, and I've really been enjoying this experiential learning part of the course. The first week, we worked on cutting down bamboo. At first, it felt wrong to be cutting down a lot of plants, but we learned that bamboo is actually an invasive species that takes over areas and prevents native plants from growing. Using shears, we cut down the bamboo and created piles for them to later burn in a controlled fire. The next two weeks, we focused on cutting down privet in another area, which is another invasive plant. Much finer and easier to cut with shears, Styrling and I really got to work and were able to make a lot of progress. There's something really satisfying about starting with an area that is completely overgrown and clearing it out, especially when you can actually see the difference you're making.  We've also figured out a system of stepping on the plants to see the root...

Over spring break, I went to Cabo and one of my favorite parts of the trip was a boat day where we saw whales. The boat trip started as a regular touristy trip, visiting the rock formations and El Arco, but once we got to the open water, the magic started to happen. Our boat driver started pointing out whales in the distance and explaining what we were seeing. He told us that when whales lift their tails out of the water like that, it means they’re about to dive deeper below the surface, and after that they can stay down for a while, which is why they would just disappear. He also pointed out that the white markings on the underside of their tails are different for every whale, kind of like a fingerprint, and that researchers use those patterns to identify them. We also saw dolphins swimming alongside the boat, which felt completely different. They were moving fast and coming right up next to us, while the whales felt slower and calmer. The driver told us the whales we were seeing were...