Environmental Autobiography
Growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, my perception of the environment was bleak and disconnected. In my head nature and the environment were places I had to physically go to, I thought the city I grew up in couldn’t possibly be considered part of “the environment.” At that time my parents did not connect much with the environment. They were both born in Mexico and moved to the United States at a very young age and neither gained any lasting connections to the land or natural environment that they could pass on to me. Once here in Los Angeles, their priorities became to naturalize, find jobs, and provide a life for them and a family. This mindset does not leave much room for anything else, so as I was raised, the natural world did not really cross my mind.
It was not until my junior year of high school that I started to understand and take an interest in our environment, how it functions, and how we play a very vital role in its care. I took an AP environmental class that year. The funny thing is, I didn't even take the class out of interest, I thought it would be the easiest “A” compared to the other AP science classes. I could not have been more wrong, this class challenged me in so many ways. It was an entirely new system of thinking for me, with interconnected aspects of biology, chemistry, ecology, and even social science. I remember being on fire for this class, I looked forward to it every day. I could not stop talking about all the things I had learned to my friends and family. Any time I had the chance to bring up the subject I would, spouting out random facts about why things were happening in our environment, the science behind it, and how we play a huge role in all the negative impacts that were occurring around us at the time. A conversation I had with my mom and step dad about sea level rise turned into an argument because one of them refused to admit that sea level rise was increasing because of the rate at which polar ice was melting off from the land into the sea. This was the first time I had experienced the ignorance and straight up denial of science to my face. I was also only 16 so they dismissed the conversation. After this experience I gained even more passion for the subject and quickly began to realize how much trouble our world was in if we couldn’t get people to understand the importance of our own human impacts. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of my environmental journey.
Despite my passion for the subject, there was still a major disconnect between me and the natural environment. The suburbs of LA don’t offer much nature exposure except for going to the beach in the summer time. The beach was my favorite place to go to and still is to this day, but even then, my deep connection to it was not realized until I moved to Monterey for college. My nature connection was something I didn’t even know I was missing till I was living and constantly immersed in the beautiful nature of the Monterey bay area that I realized how important nature exposure was to properly care for the planet. While living in Monterey I got to see beautiful beaches, forests, and a diversity of wild life every single day; while also getting to learn its history and study the local environment through my degree program. Monterey was nothing like my home in LA, but I learned to love it just as much as my new home. When I would go back to LA for break I could see the differences in every aspect of the environment and its people as compared to Monterey. Even the sky looked completely different, a yellow cast that I never noticed before hovered over buildings and mountains in the distance. Yet I felt there was still so much beauty to be seen and so much potential to help bring it back to life. Living in a place that was so nature filled and learning in depth about the environment opened my eyes to how narrow my perception was back then. These experiences would later play a role in the direction I decided to take with my new-found knowledge and degree.
Looking back, I can see all of the things that lead me to where I am now and how I was able to navigate my way through it. At the start of my environmental journey I had no idea what I wanted to do with my new-found passion, as there are so many complex issues that need to be addressed and I wanted to solve all of them. In my third year of college I took a research methods course in environmental studies and it set the foundation for what direction I wanted to head with my degree. My biggest take away from this class was the importance of community involvement when it came to addressing local environmental issues and the integration of nature within these communities. I also started to take a large interest in the built environment, realizing that urbanized areas are also considered to be part of the environment just as much as nature is considered a part of it. This notion that the built environment and the natural environment are separate is where we lose the opportunity in solving many environmental issues and I wanted to be a part of the bridge that brought them together as one. The concepts of bringing nature into the built environment was such an interesting concept to me, it perfectly encompassed my passion for the environment and my connection to the land I grew up on.
I used to be one of those people who saw the built environment and the natural environment as completely separate. I thought that the concrete streets and buildings of LA couldn’t possibly be considered part of an ecosystem and now as I am about to graduate I will be going into a field where I have the opportunity to show people like me just how much they are connected. I hope to one day make a difference in people’s lives and the life of our planet by building this bridge and connecting people to nature once again.
It was not until my junior year of high school that I started to understand and take an interest in our environment, how it functions, and how we play a very vital role in its care. I took an AP environmental class that year. The funny thing is, I didn't even take the class out of interest, I thought it would be the easiest “A” compared to the other AP science classes. I could not have been more wrong, this class challenged me in so many ways. It was an entirely new system of thinking for me, with interconnected aspects of biology, chemistry, ecology, and even social science. I remember being on fire for this class, I looked forward to it every day. I could not stop talking about all the things I had learned to my friends and family. Any time I had the chance to bring up the subject I would, spouting out random facts about why things were happening in our environment, the science behind it, and how we play a huge role in all the negative impacts that were occurring around us at the time. A conversation I had with my mom and step dad about sea level rise turned into an argument because one of them refused to admit that sea level rise was increasing because of the rate at which polar ice was melting off from the land into the sea. This was the first time I had experienced the ignorance and straight up denial of science to my face. I was also only 16 so they dismissed the conversation. After this experience I gained even more passion for the subject and quickly began to realize how much trouble our world was in if we couldn’t get people to understand the importance of our own human impacts. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of my environmental journey.
Despite my passion for the subject, there was still a major disconnect between me and the natural environment. The suburbs of LA don’t offer much nature exposure except for going to the beach in the summer time. The beach was my favorite place to go to and still is to this day, but even then, my deep connection to it was not realized until I moved to Monterey for college. My nature connection was something I didn’t even know I was missing till I was living and constantly immersed in the beautiful nature of the Monterey bay area that I realized how important nature exposure was to properly care for the planet. While living in Monterey I got to see beautiful beaches, forests, and a diversity of wild life every single day; while also getting to learn its history and study the local environment through my degree program. Monterey was nothing like my home in LA, but I learned to love it just as much as my new home. When I would go back to LA for break I could see the differences in every aspect of the environment and its people as compared to Monterey. Even the sky looked completely different, a yellow cast that I never noticed before hovered over buildings and mountains in the distance. Yet I felt there was still so much beauty to be seen and so much potential to help bring it back to life. Living in a place that was so nature filled and learning in depth about the environment opened my eyes to how narrow my perception was back then. These experiences would later play a role in the direction I decided to take with my new-found knowledge and degree.
Looking back, I can see all of the things that lead me to where I am now and how I was able to navigate my way through it. At the start of my environmental journey I had no idea what I wanted to do with my new-found passion, as there are so many complex issues that need to be addressed and I wanted to solve all of them. In my third year of college I took a research methods course in environmental studies and it set the foundation for what direction I wanted to head with my degree. My biggest take away from this class was the importance of community involvement when it came to addressing local environmental issues and the integration of nature within these communities. I also started to take a large interest in the built environment, realizing that urbanized areas are also considered to be part of the environment just as much as nature is considered a part of it. This notion that the built environment and the natural environment are separate is where we lose the opportunity in solving many environmental issues and I wanted to be a part of the bridge that brought them together as one. The concepts of bringing nature into the built environment was such an interesting concept to me, it perfectly encompassed my passion for the environment and my connection to the land I grew up on.
I used to be one of those people who saw the built environment and the natural environment as completely separate. I thought that the concrete streets and buildings of LA couldn’t possibly be considered part of an ecosystem and now as I am about to graduate I will be going into a field where I have the opportunity to show people like me just how much they are connected. I hope to one day make a difference in people’s lives and the life of our planet by building this bridge and connecting people to nature once again.