My Action Post #4: “Everything is Complicated!”

Hey Everyone!

With this being my fourth action post, I will be focussing on a major obstacle I have encountered recently within my action. Throughout this challenge, I have been able to focus on the positive side of things and understand that sometimes failure is required to succeed. While reading this post, you will come across some quotes that express a powerful message: never give up. Through the challenges I have faced in this action so far, I am reminding myself to look at the positives, and improve for the future, rather than dwell on the past. I thought to include these quotes throughout my post as a way to express this theme. 

Just a quick summary, my action involves planning nature walks and science explorations within Mundy Park as a way to raise awareness of land preservation, the importance of women in STEM, and offering people an outlet to pursue their personal interests and passions. I’ve named my action Project One with Nature. So far, I have been on a nature walk with Mr. Cowie, one of my experts. He has helped me learn more about the park and expand my knowledge. I talk about my meeting with Mr. Cowie in detail in a previous post. Additionally, at the beginning of November, I participated in a nature walk activity with students from Baker Drive Elementary as a way to see how young children interact with nature. This allowed me to see the park from their perspective. 

Currently, at this stage in my action project, I am starting to experience challenges which have shown me that “everything is complicated”; This is something Ms. Stuart discusses in lesson one of her TEDX Talk. Until recently, I hadn’t come to terms with this for the purpose of my action because everything has been smooth sailing up until now. However, the next step of my action has brought its own challenges, complexities, and setbacks. 

Right now, I am trying to find people interested in joining One with Nature, and this is where I’ve been having the most struggle. A week prior to holding my first meeting, I tried to spread awareness and inform people of my initiative through the school announcements, and social media (Instagram). The day of the meeting, I also took some awesome advice from Ms. Stuart and decided to visit multiple classes during my off-blocks to tell students about my action and inform them of the meeting after school if they were interested. Last week on Thursday, November 14th, 2019, I held the first meeting, but no one came. 

Okay, yes, I will admit I was a little sad because I had visited over 10 classes that day in the hopes that I would recruit at least one person. However, from this failure, I have truly learned that “everything is complicated,” and I am already learning from this challenge and growing so much because of it. Throughout this action, I will face complications, because there will be things that I have no control over; I have no control over who is interested in joining One with Nature, but I can still work on finding better ways to inform others so that they may become interested. 

This experience has helped me recognize the fact that there are very few people who have made big accomplishments without some sort of setback. This is exactly what I am experiencing right now. I know that I will reach my goal in the end, so I will not let this one setback get me down. Instead, I will continue to persevere. Most of the time, the best achievements are the ones where there was the most challenges, because it shows how hard someone works to reach their goal and accomplish what they set out to do. 

Like I said at the beginning of my post, although I am facing this major challenge in my action, there has been some positive outcomes that have resulted. Last Friday, I connected with a girl I met through science peer tutoring at my school. Like me, she is a science peer tutor, and I started telling her about my action and initiative. She became very interested and said she would love to participate. This is when I realized that I was able to spark interest in someone through a personal one on one conversation. We connected through our passion for science, and through this conversation, I was able to learn about her interests. She was very interested in the science exploration studies rather than the nature walks, but she would still like to participate in both. 

This challenge has brought some meaningful impact to my action. Through the connection I made with this girl, I have decided to try talking with people one on one, rather than informing large groups all at once. Sometimes, in one on one interactions, people feel more comfortable talking about themselves and their interests. By doing this, I would be able to connect with others on a personal level, which might make them more open to possibly joining One with Nature. 

Is My Action Sustainable?

Because I have not fully started leading my own nature walks and science explorations, I’m not quite sure if my action is sustainable. However, even though this is my last year of high school, I would like to think that I could continue holding nature walks for anyone interested in participating even after I graduate. Perhaps, I could implement this action into the community of the university I attend in the future. I think it is important to have a place where one can escape their busy lifestyle and routine. Although the main purpose of my action is to raise awareness for my sustainable development goals, nature walks can help people relax and relieve stress by being immersed in a calm environment. For me personally, getting out for a walk in a forest or park has always been a way for me to take my mind away from my current worries, and I’d like to offer others this opportunity as well. 

Is this action providing opportunity? How will you ensure you are making the positive impact that you intend?

Interestingly, I think this action is providing opportunity for me even though I haven’t started the main portion of my intended action. This action has provided me with the opportunity to accept failure and learn from it. Each and every step comes with its own ups and downs, and by learning to navigate these ups and downs I will become successful in achieving the goals I have laid out. 

My action looks at making a positive impact, but it is the process of getting there that will be the most difficult. I am going to continue working hard and putting my maximum effort into making this action succeed, even when I face a challenge. 

For my next post, I am setting a goal for myself. I hope to have a group of at least 4 people willing to participate in One with Nature. I already have one person, so I feel this is a good start. By then, this means I will have the first nature walk/science exploration scheduled. In the end, I don’t care how many people join. If I end up having 4 people throughout my whole action, I will look at the bright side; having a small group might be a better way to connect with each person and let their interests and passions to guide our walks and science experiments to new levels!

Thank you for reading!

-Madison Ciulla